tag:theconversation.com,2011:/nz/topics/australian-media-3756/articlesAustralian media – The Conversation2020-05-29T11:47:04Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1396492020-05-29T11:47:04Z2020-05-29T11:47:04ZDigital-only local newspapers will struggle to serve the communities that need them most<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/338461/original/file-20200529-51509-xgwve9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;rect=0%2C102%2C2450%2C1529&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=496&amp;fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>This week News Corp Australia announced the end of the print editions of <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/media/2020/may/28/news-corp-announces-end-of-nearly-100-australian-print-newspapers-in-huge-shift-to-digital">112 suburban and regional mastheads</a> – about one-fifth of all of Australia’s local newspapers. Of those, 36 will close and 76 become purely online publications. </p>
<p>Getting <a href="https://piji.com.au/research/the-australian-newsroom-mapping-project/">the chop entirely</a> are small regional newspapers such as the Herbert River Express in far north Queensland. Its circulation at last boast was “more than 2,700”. Those going digital include free suburban papers such as Sydney’s Manly Daily, established in 1906. As recently as 2017 it came out five times a week. Since 2018 is has been published <a href="https://mumbrella.com.au/news-corp-scales-manly-daily-back-two-editions-per-week-487802">twice a week</a>. </p>
<p>Whether the online-only papers can survive remains to be seen. But our research at the <a href="https://www.uts.edu.au/research-and-teaching/our-research/centre-media-transition">Centre for Media Transition</a> suggests it will be hard for them to match what local print editions offered communities. </p>
<h2>Losing readers and advertisers</h2>
<p>Like print media in general, local newspapers have been squeezed by readers and advertisers moving online. Most of the revenue, even for those with a cover price, has come from advertising. This has been eroded by the likes of Google and Facebook as well as localised classified sites such as Gumtree.</p>
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<p>While this has happened at slower pace than the loss of the “rivers of gold” for metropolitan newspapers, the “desertification” of local news has progressed steadily. In the decade to 2018, <a href="https://www.accc.gov.au/system/files/Digital%20platforms%20inquiry%20-%20final%20report.pdf">106 local and regional newspapers closed</a> in Australia, leaving 21 local government areas – 16 in regional areas – without a local newspaper. </p>
<p>Those that have survived have seen their staff slashed, with reporters expected to produce more “content” at the cost of doing the serious reporting that made local newspapers so valuable to their communities.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/after-a-dark-decade-for-australias-regional-newspapers-a-hopeful-light-flickers-116359">After a dark decade for Australia's regional newspapers, a hopeful light flickers</a>
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<h2>Local media ‘keystones’</h2>
<p>As Danish researcher Rasmus Kleis Nielsen notes in <a href="https://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/sites/default/files/2017-12/Local%20Journalism%20-%20the%20decline%20of%20newspapers%20and%20the%20rise%20of%20digital%20media.pdf">Local Journalism: The decline of newspapers and the rise of digital media</a> (IB Taurus, 2016), local newspapers have been the “keystone” of “local news ecosystems”. </p>
<p>No other local media comes close to the local coverage they provide. “Most of the many stories about local politics produced by the local paper never appear anywhere else,” says Nielsen. Local radio and television have tended to piggyback on their work. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/what-a-local-newspaper-means-to-a-regional-city-like-newcastle-116276">What a local newspaper means to a regional city like Newcastle</a>
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<p>Without this reporting, local democracy suffers. Research <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/blog/up-front/2018/07/16/how-closures-of-local-newspaper-increase-local-government-borrowing-costs/">in the United States</a> shows local papers are essential to keep local government accountable. </p>
<h2>Local news doesn’t scale</h2>
<p>Given declining revenue for traditional print, and the cost of printing, moving to digital-only platforms was perhaps inevitable. </p>
<p>But the COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the move by killing off advertising from local businesses such as restaurants and pubs. In April News Corp <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/media/2020/apr/01/news-corp-to-suspend-print-editions-of-60-local-newspapers-as-advertising-revenue-slumps">suspended the print runs of 60</a> local papers. Just three – the Wentworth Courier, Mosman Daily and North Shore Times, serving Sydney’s most affluent suburbs – will resume, thanks to their lucrative property advertising.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/coronavirus-is-killing-quality-journalism-heres-one-possible-lifeline-138627">Coronavirus is killing quality journalism – here's one possible lifeline</a>
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<p>Making the rest viable as digital-only local news services is going to be tricky for two reasons.</p>
<p>The first is to do with how online advertising works. The second is how readers in these areas relate to the news, and their willingness to pay for online news.</p>
<p>A key characteristic of the historical readership and advertising markets for local newspaper is their “bounded” nature. But the defining characteristics of online news and advertising is “scaleability”. </p>
<p>Once all newspapers could largely dictate prices to advertisers. This was particularly the case with local papers, often the only game in town. But the game has changed. What they can charge for online advertising is a fraction of what they once could for print. </p>
<p>Most metro newspapers responded with plans to grow their readership by providing their content free online. The idea was that more readers would help maintain them as an attractive advertising platform.</p>
<p>This has generally not proved the winning strategy they had hoped. So papers from <em>The Age</em> to <em>The Daily Telegraph</em> have been moving to paywalls, enticing their print buyers to online subscriptions.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/cash-for-clicks-the-herald-sun-model-cant-be-the-future-of-journalism-119638">Cash for clicks: the Herald Sun model can't be the future of journalism</a>
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<h2>Unwillingness to pay</h2>
<p>Our research suggests doing the same with non-metropolitan newspapers is likely to be harder. Readers in rural and regional areas are less willing than those in cities to pay for online news services.</p>
<p>As part of our report <a href="https://www.uts.edu.au/sites/default/files/2019-09/Regional%20News%20Media%20-%20State%20of%20play_0.pdf">Regional News Media: State of Play</a> published in 2019, we surveyed 266 people living in regional and rural areas, demographically representative of the population of country Australia.</p>
<p>Just 14% indicated willingness to pay for news online, with 49% saying they would not (and 37% unsure). </p>
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<p>The News and Media Research Centre at the University of Canberra has found similar reluctance to pay. The results of its <a href="https://apo.org.au/sites/default/files/resource-files/2019-06/apo-nid240786.pdf">Digital News Report Australia 2019</a> show just 12% of regional news consumers had paid for online news, compared with 16% of urban news consumers. More detailed research produced for our <a href="https://www.uts.edu.au/sites/default/files/2019-09/Regional%20News%20Media%20-%20State%20of%20play_0.pdf">report</a> shows the difference is starkest for subscriptions. </p>
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<h2>Poorest communities hurt the most</h2>
<p>That unwillingness to pay for online content may change if it’s the only way to get local news. Attitudes to online subscriptions are shifting, and people do value local news. Research commissioned for the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission’s Digital Platforms Inquiry found <a href="https://www.accc.gov.au/system/files/ACCC%20consumer%20survey%20-%20Consumer%20use%20of%20news%2C%20Roy%20Morgan%20Research.pdf">71% of the population </a> rated it as important as national news for social participation. </p>
<p>But the portents aren’t great for quality local news coverage – particularly in regional areas. The likelihood is further desertification of the local news landscape, with poorer communities most affected. </p>
<p>This is confirmed <a href="https://www.usnewsdeserts.com/reports/expanding-news-desert/loss-of-local-news/">by US research</a> that shows the people with the least access to local news are often “the poorest, least educated and most isolated”.</p>
<p>As Matthew Hindman of Harvard’s <a href="https://shorensteincenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/Stickier-News-Matthew-Hindman.pdf">Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy</a> has noted: “Even the clearest local digital success stories employ only a few reporters – far less than the number laid off from the papers in their own cities. </p>
<p>"Worrisome, too, is the fact they have found the most traction in the affluent, social-capital rich communities that need them least.”</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/139649/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Chrisanthi Giotis works at the Centre for Media Transition which has previously been contracted by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) to research the impact of digital platforms on news and by the Australian Communications Media Authority (ACMA) to research localism.
She is a member of the Australian Labor Party.</span></em></p>Research by the UTS Centre for Media Transition suggests it will be hard for digital-only local newspapers to match what local print editions gave their communities.Chrisanthi Giotis, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, School of Communication, University of Technology SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1395592020-05-28T09:23:31Z2020-05-28T09:23:31ZAnother savage blow to regional media spells disaster for the communities they serve<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/338155/original/file-20200528-51527-5fr5fm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=496&amp;fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">David Mariuz/AAP</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>With swift and savage force, the COVID-19 pandemic has inadvertently attacked Australia’s local news media ecology, which was already battling a weakened immune system.</p>
<p>As a researcher working on Australia’s <a href="https://www.localnewsinnovation.org">largest academic study into the future of local newspapers</a>, the phones have been running hot in recent weeks. We’ve had calls from everyday people, journalists made redundant, cadets surviving on JobKeeper, and independent news proprietors, all navigating their way through the crisis.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/local-newspapers-are-an-essential-service-they-deserve-a-government-rescue-package-too-135323">Local newspapers are an 'essential service'. They deserve a government rescue package, too</a>
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<p>News Corp <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/media/2020/may/28/gutting-news-corp-australias-newspaper-print-closures-will-leave-thousands-of-stories-untold">has announced plans</a> to close or suspend printing operations of more than 100 suburban and small community titles. Its more successful publications, such as the Geelong Advertiser, Gold Coast Bulletin, Hobart Mercury and the iconic Northern Territory News, will remain with print and digital editions.</p>
<p>Other independently-owned newspapers across rural and regional Australia are still breathing: they are gasping for air, but they are breathing. They’ve either temporarily suspended operations, cut back the number of print editions or shifted to a digital-only model to “see how it goes”.</p>
<p>Since the COVID-19 crisis emerged, there have been two key funding schemes introduced (or re-introduced) to support news providers - the government’s $50 million <a href="https://www.communications.gov.au/departmental-news/public-interest-journalism-grant-round-opens">Public Interest News Gathering Program</a> and a $5 million <a href="https://www.acma.gov.au/regional-and-small-publishers-innovation-fund">Regional and Small Publishers Innovation Fund</a>.</p>
<p>The federal government has also <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/media/2020/apr/19/facebook-and-google-to-be-forced-to-share-advertising-revenue-with-australian-media-companies">announced plans to force Google and Facebook</a> to share advertising revenue with producers of quality journalism in Australia. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission is now <a href="https://www.accc.gov.au/focus-areas/digital-platforms/news-media-bargaining-code/concepts-paper">seeking views on its new draft mandatory code</a> that will address bargaining power imbalances between Australia’s news media businesses, and Google and Facebook.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/trust-in-quality-news-outlets-strong-during-coronavirus-pandemic-138410">Trust in quality news outlets strong during coronavirus pandemic</a>
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<p>This has been met with some initial concern from the Country Press Association of Australia amid fears the modelling may only benefit big companies and not the little players that serve small towns and cities.</p>
<p>The Victorian government <a href="https://www.thecourier.com.au/story/6729407/government-ads-welcome-news-for-local-news/">has waded in</a> to provide more than $4 million in additional advertising support for local and regional print publications. Our preliminary research indicates Victoria leads the way with this type of support for local news. Other states, such as South Australia and New South Wales, lag behind or have announced changes to legislation that provides government authorities freedom to advertise on their own sites or via social media. </p>
<p>The problem is, social media sites like Facebook don’t put the interests of local communities first, whereas local news outlets do (or at least they should). Facebook has gone to great lengths to distance itself from the types of local content posted on its platform. In the local news ecology, it tends to feed from traditional local news providers or the goodwill of citizens who moderate and upload content of local importance and reap the advertising rewards. <a href="https://www.facebook.com/journalismproject/programs/grants/australian-news-coronavirus-grant-terms">One off, $10,000 grants from social media juggernauts</a> to local news entrepreneurs won’t fix this systemic problem.</p>
<p>In some local areas, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/news/2020/apr/16/coronavirus-closed-a-broken-hill-newspaper-but-the-community-fought-to-save-it">business owners are offering donations</a> or advertising support to preserve the journal of record during COVID-19. JobKeeper is keeping many cadet journalists on the payroll, and there are some keen reporters doing their bit to report on the news, even if they are not getting paid.</p>
<p>There’s also stories of new start-ups emerging – like Matt Dunn in Victoria’s South Gippsland region. He was made redundant by the local newspaper, which is planning to close its doors permanently. He immediately set to work developing his own digital news platform, “<a href="http://www.papernews.com.au">The Paper</a>”. </p>
<p>Dunn is confident elderly residents who have little experience with technology will come on board because they will be hungry for good quality local meaningful news. It’s about the content, not the platform.</p>
<p>However, digital-only publications are problematic in areas of rural and regional Australia that <a href="http://dro.deakin.edu.au/view/DU:30104693?_ga=2.173929636.68308639.1590360147-1867584665.1582446065">struggle with broadband connectivity</a>. It’s even more worrisome for those areas with ageing populations, where reading the local paper is a daily or weekly ritual to maintain a sense of connection to their community.</p>
<p>I’ve spoken with several elderly residents in recent weeks who are distressed about the <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-04-14/australian-community-media-announces-printing-halt/12147674">decline of Australian Community Media’s local content</a> and the reduction of the print edition. Without the newspaper and technological capabilities, they feel “lost”. And importantly, they can’t read the death notices, so have no idea who has died.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/without-local-papers-regional-voices-would-struggle-to-be-heard-26620">Without local papers, regional voices would struggle to be heard</a>
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<p>Perhaps that is the key for policymakers, researchers and industry in a post COVID-19 world. Big news conglomerates around the world have been accused of building a plethora of zombie newspapers that are local in name only – full of syndicated content, without really being attuned to the needs and wants of a community or helping people to develop shared social connection and purpose to place.</p>
<p>My hunch is zombie papers will be the first to fall.</p>
<p>Audiences aren’t stupid. It’s the newspapers and community individuals determined to provide news that are the <a href="https://books.google.com.au/books?id=aQxjDwAAQBAJ&amp;printsec=frontcover&amp;dq=local+news+williams+harte&amp;hl=en&amp;sa=X&amp;ved=0ahUKEwje95eritbpAhXxwzgGHVVfDCYQ6AEIKDAA#v=onepage&amp;q=local%20news%20williams%20harte&amp;f=false">heart of their communities</a> and should survive into the future. Policymakers, researchers and industry need to be acutely aware of the types of news outlets and individuals that best provide – or are willing to provide – real, credible and meaningful local news and information for their communities in areas of Australia big and small.</p>
<p>They are the ones that should be at the front of the queue for any type of media vaccine.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/139559/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kristy Hess has received funding from the Australian Research Council, Country Press Australia and the Edward Wilson Trust.</span></em></p>News Corp's announcement it will stop printing 100 suburban and community newspapers is another blow for regional Australia and the the media landscape more broadly.Kristy Hess, Associate Professor (Communication), Deakin UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1377802020-05-05T19:51:11Z2020-05-05T19:51:11ZCoronavirus 'news fatigue' starts to bite for Australians in lockdown<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/332561/original/file-20200504-83721-1h8eak3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=496&amp;fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>During social isolation, Australians have been staying at home to stop the spread of COVID-19. This has resulted in an increase in news and media consumption. After weeks of restricted movement and social distancing, Australians are restless. Not only are they tired of being in lockdown, they are also feeling worn out by news about the coronavirus.</p>
<p>More than two-thirds of Australians (71%) say they are avoiding news about the coronavirus and this is largely driven by news fatigue. This figure is 9% higher than our usual rate of avoidance, according to the <a href="https://apo.org.au/sites/default/files/resource-files/2019-06/apo-nid240786.pdf">Digital News Report Australia 2019</a>, which showed 62% of Australians avoid the news generally.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/coronavirus-is-a-huge-story-so-journalists-must-apply-the-highest-ethical-standards-in-how-they-tell-it-133347">Coronavirus is a huge story, so journalists must apply the highest ethical standards in how they tell it</a>
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<p>The findings are included in a report on <a href="https://www.canberra.edu.au/research/faculty-research-centres/nmrc/publications/documents/COVID-19-Australian-news-and-misinformation.pdf">Australians’ news and misinformation consumption during the COVID-19 outbreak</a>. A national representative online survey of 2,196 Australians aged 18 and older was conducted by the News and Media Research Centre at the University of Canberra in April 2020. </p>
<p>News fatigue is driving avoidance. About half (52%) say they are tired of hearing about COVID-19, and 46% say they find the news coverage overwhelming. Women are more likely to avoid news about the coronavirus than men because they find it upsetting. Men are more likely to avoid it because they simply feel overwhelmed by the sheer volume of news. </p>
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<p>While news about coronavirus has provided people with an important shared topic of conversation (53%), it has also made people feel more anxious (52%). </p>
<p>Women were much more likely to feel an increase in anxiety because of coronavirus news (59%) than men (44%), and younger people – Gen Y in particular – have found the news coverage more anxiety-inducing than older people. This seems odd given older people are more likely to suffer serious health effects. However, job losses, isolation from friends, school closures and uncertainty about the future impact on younger people more.</p>
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<p>The report also finds a connection between news consumption and stockpiling. People who have been consuming more news than usual were more likely to say they had stocked up on essentials (41%), compared to those whose news access had stayed the same (23%) or decreased (26%). </p>
<p>Overall, news consumption has been much higher during this time. More than two-thirds of Australians (71%) say their news consumption has increased since the COVID-19 outbreak, and 70% say they have been accessing news about it more than once a day. Last year, the Digital News Report Australia 2019 showed only 56% accessed news more than once a day. </p>
<p>Concern about COVID-19 is driving this increase in news consumption – 78% of those who say they are worried about it have started watching, reading and listening to news more often. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-some-australian-media-are-failing-us-on-coronavirus-135550">How some Australian media are failing us on coronavirus</a>
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<p>On a positive note, trust in news about COVID-19 is higher (53%) than trust in news in general. Last year, overall trust in news was much lower at 44%, according to the Digital News Report. While Australians have drawn information from a range of sources during the crisis, including the government and health experts, the news media have been their main source of information.</p>
<p>In comparison to the UK and US, the Australian news media and government have been regarded as performing better. Three-quarters (75%) of those surveyed think the government has done a good job informing them about the pandemic, <a href="https://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/infodemic-how-people-six-countries-access-and-rate-news-and-information-about-coronavirus">compared to 63% of people in the UK and 45% in the US</a>. </p>
<p>However, fewer people in the UK think the government has exaggerated this issue (11%) compared to 21% in the US and 18% here. Similarly, 33% in the UK think the news media have exaggerated the issue compared to 38% in the US and Australia. </p>
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<p>While there has been a lot of talk about the “infodemic” that has accompanied the health pandemic, concern about misinformation is not high. Less than a quarter (23%) of people say they have encountered a lot of misinformation about the coronavirus, and 30% say they haven’t encountered much or at all. But around one-third (36%) say they have seen it occasionally. In most cases, people have said they encounter misinformation on social media. </p>
<p>The post-coronavirus recovery will likely see Australia emerge into a significantly changed media landscape, marked by great uncertainty over the future of journalism. However, the question remains whether
COVID-19 will change attitudes towards news and information more permanently, or if the changes found in this survey will prove to be short-lived.</p>
<p><em>The online survey of 2,196 Australians aged 18 and older was conducted for the N&amp;MRC by McNair yellowSquares from 18-22 April 2020. The final sample is reflective of the population that has access to the internet. We used a quota for gender, age, region and education, reflecting the Australian Bureau of Statistics 2016 Census for adults aged 18 or older. The data were weighted based on the quota. This research was supported by Deputy Vice-Chancellor Research and Innovation Strategic Funding, University of Canberra.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/137780/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Caroline Fisher receives funding from Social Science Research Council and Google News Initiative.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jee Young Lee receives funding from the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia, Social Science Research Council and Google News Initiative.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sora Park receives funding from the Australian Research Council, Social Science Research Council, Google News Initiative and the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kieran McGuinness does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>New research reveals Australians are feeling overwhelmed and anxious about coronavirus news, with younger people particularly worried about its effects.Caroline Fisher, Deputy Director of the News and Media Research Centre, and Assistant Professor of Journalism, University of CanberraJee Young Lee, Digital News Report Postdoctoral Research FellowKieran McGuinness, Research Associate in Communication, University of CanberraSora Park, Associate Dean of Research, Faculty of Arts & Design, University of CanberraLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1362292020-04-20T02:47:04Z2020-04-20T02:47:04ZNow more than ever, we need quality health reporting in Australia<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/328970/original/file-20200420-152576-9ia3gv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=496&amp;fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>As the number of COVID-19 infections climbs across the globe, so too do <a href="https://www.poynter.org/business-work/2020/here-are-the-newsroom-layoffs-furloughs-and-closures-caused-by-the-coronavirus/">stories</a> about journalism job losses, newsroom cutbacks and masthead closures. This raises the question: what does the pandemic-induced economic crisis mean for <a href="https://piji.com.au/">public interest journalism</a>?</p>
<p>Our latest research suggests quality health reporting in Australia – an important type of public interest journalism – was already under threat before the latest cutbacks, and before mis- and disinformation about the pandemic infected the internet.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/a-matter-of-trust-coronavirus-shows-again-why-we-value-expertise-when-it-comes-to-our-health-134779">A matter of trust: coronavirus shows again why we value expertise when it comes to our health</a>
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<p>To stem the haemorrhage of public interest journalism, the Morrison government has announced a pandemic relief package for Australian media, including a A$50 million Public Interest News Gathering (PING) program. The <a href="https://www.communications.gov.au/what-we-do/television/relief-australian-media-during-covid-19">government</a> will support commercial television, newspaper and radio businesses that produce “quality news, particularly in remote and regional Australia”. Yet details about what constitutes public interest journalism and how it will be adequately supported remain sketchy. </p>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/10410236.2020.1749352">Our study</a> examined the quality of health reporting about cancer in Australia’s daily newspapers from 1997 to 2017. It found significant and increasing shortfalls in this type of public interest journalism.</p>
<p>While concerning, this finding was not surprising. Media companies have experienced significant financial duress in the digital age as technologies have transformed advertising markets and shifted revenues away from print to online competitors. This <a href="https://theconversation.com/job-cuts-strikes-structural-change-the-uncertain-future-facing-quality-newspapers-7304">hardship</a> for media outlets has led to newsroom cost-cutting and hundreds of masthead closures. </p>
<p>In terms of health reporting, it has meant fewer specialist medical reporters and experienced editors in newsrooms to sift through hype about miracle cures.</p>
<p>This is of concern for public knowledge about health issues. While newspapers have suffered significant cutbacks, their online reach and agenda-setting power mean they remain an important source of information for the public’s understanding of health care and disease. As many <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27983868">studies</a> have found, news media play a key role in public health awareness and can influence how citizens use the healthcare system.</p>
<p>A <a href="https://www.mja.com.au/journal/2015/202/11/crux-matter-did-abcs-catalyst-program-change-statin-use-australia">prominent example</a> of media effects on public health knowledge was the direct impact of an ABC television report in 2015 that was critical of a cholesterol-lowering drug. It resulted in 60,000 Australians changing their prescribed medication, often at serious risk to their health. The content was later removed, but the damage was done.</p>
<p>Our <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/toc/hhth20/current">latest research</a> investigated the quality of cancer reporting in two different years. These covered both a time of prosperity (1997) and a time of austerity (2017) for the Australian press.</p>
<p>More than 600 stories were sourced from tabloid and broadsheet-styled daily newspapers across Australia using keywords relating to cancer. We were specifically interested in cancer treatments and research.</p>
<p>We scored each story using a Media Quality Index (MQI), made up of eight measures. The eight measures were informed by past studies and tested the detail, accuracy and balance of reporting in the news stories and their headlines. </p>
<p>We found a statistically significant decline in the quality of reporting about cancer from 1997 to 2017 across the mainstream press. Tabloid articles received
significantly lower MQI scores than the broadsheet stories. </p>
<p>Of particular concern was the under-reporting of harms. We found stories published in 2017 were far less likely to discuss side effects or the potential for harm of cancer treatments compared to stories in 1997. In 1997, 60% of news stories about cancer treatments and research mentioned potential side effects. This compared with just 7% of stories published in 2017. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/during-the-great-depression-many-newspapers-betrayed-their-readers-some-are-doing-it-again-now-135426">During the Great Depression, many newspapers betrayed their readers. Some are doing it again now</a>
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<p>This lack of critical health reporting about medical harms can limit the capacity of health consumers to make informed decisions about their illnesses and treatments. It can also inadvertently promote overuse of health services, with implications for the healthcare budget and public policy. Potentially, it can foster unrealistic expectations and undermine the public’s confidence in the medical profession if these expectations are not met.</p>
<p>We also found a significant rise in the use of sensational and emotive language in news reporting about cancer in 2017 (71%) compared to stories published in 1997 (34%). </p>
<p>This rise in emotive language and sensationalism is alarming because of the media’s potential to influence patient decision-making. </p>
<p>However, not all responsibility for sensationalism lies with media outlets. Researchers can stand to gain from favourable coverage of preliminary findings in terms of attracting venture capital. This underscores the need for specialist reporters who can detect questionable health claims in self-serving media releases.</p>
<p>In 2017, more headlines were guilty of clickbait – misleading readers to stoke attention and boost reader metrics to attract advertising dollars – compared to 1997. In 1997, 72% of headlines were considered accurate compared to 48% in 2017.</p>
<p>The initial misconception caused by a misleading headline is problematic because false impressions can be hard to correct. Again, they may raise a patient’s hopes and expectations regarding their cancer diagnosis and treatment. </p>
<p>Our study signals a broader warning about the quality of health reporting in the mainstream media. It shows the need for more public interest journalism to counter the abundance of health misinformation online.</p>
<p>To this end, the government’s PING program is a step in the right direction, but whether it will be enough remains to be seen. </p>
<p><em>This research project was led by Dr Nicholas Lawler, a medical resident at the Royal Melbourne Hospital.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/136229/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Andrea Carson is a member of the expert research panel of the Public Interest Journalism Initiative: a not-for-profit organisation established to support public interest journalism. She has no financial affiliations.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Andrew Brett and Timothy B. Gravelle do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The ways the media cover health and medical issues can have a direct impact on people's behaviour. New research shows the quality of health reporting declined as media companies contracted.Andrea Carson, Associate Professor, Department of Politics, Media and Philosophy, La Trobe UniversityAndrew Brett, Associate Professor (Clinical), University of MelbourneTimothy B. Gravelle, Senior Manager, Research and Data Insights, The University of QueenslandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1355502020-04-14T19:57:32Z2020-04-14T19:57:32ZHow some Australian media are failing us on coronavirus<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/327597/original/file-20200414-187087-dteqfz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=496&amp;fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>On <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/qanda/2020-23-03/12066928">a recent episode</a> of ABC’s Q&amp;A, Commonwealth Deputy Chief Medical Officer Paul Kelly tried to add some valuable context to the national outbreak of coronavirus. Australia’s testing is higher, he said, and the rates of infection lower than almost all other countries. In his words: we are not Italy. As he spoke, a tweet appeared on the screen saying the viewer felt calmer hearing information from experts.</p>
<p>Presenter Hamish Macdonald could not wait for Kelly to finish speaking before interrupting to ask him about earlier predictions that up to 60% of the population would contract COVID-19. He could have asked: why are our numbers so much lower? What is Australia doing better than other countries? Will our rates remain relatively low?</p>
<p>But, instinctively, Macdonald went for the more alarming question.</p>
<p>I hesitate to criticise Q&amp;A because it has generally been outstanding in its coverage of the coronavirus, eschewing outrage and opinion for expertise. It is performing a valuable service. But it is not immune to journalism’s more troubling instincts.</p>
<p>Macdonald, an accomplished and informed journalist, was doing precisely what he has been trained to do. That is the problem.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/during-the-great-depression-many-newspapers-betrayed-their-readers-some-are-doing-it-again-now-135426">During the Great Depression, many newspapers betrayed their readers. Some are doing it again now</a>
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<p>American political scientist W. Lance Bennett, <a href="https://www.press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/N/bo22723661.html">in his study</a> News: The Politics of Illusion, identified the “crisis cycle” of news coverage that employs drama as “a cheap, emotional device to focus on human conflict and travail”.</p>
<p>Bennett <a href="https://books.google.com.au/books?id=jGHNDAAAQBAJ&amp;pg=PA42&amp;dq=%22a+formula+that+is+profitable,+cheap,+and+easy+to+produce%22&amp;hl=en&amp;sa=X&amp;ved=0ahUKEwiFsvyJlefoAhVCfisKHcilD_UQ6AEIJzAA#v=onepage&amp;q=%22a%20formula%20that%20is%20profitable%2C%20cheap%2C%20and%20easy%20to%20produce%22&amp;f=false">writes</a>:</p>
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<p>The media … has settled on a formula that is profitable, cheap, and easy to produce, but just not terribly helpful to the citizens who consume this news.</p>
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<p>He quotes fellow scholars David Paletz and Robert Entman, who <a href="https://books.google.com.au/books/about/Media_power_politics.html?id=0p9ZAAAAMAAJ&amp;redir_esc=y">in their book</a> Media Power Politics describe how journalists “graft” on drama; they “highlight or concoct conflict”.</p>
<p>This too often is the business model of journalism. I have spent two decades in 24/7 news, and it has changed the way we consume information. At its best, it connects the world, gives voice to the powerless and holds tyranny to account. At worst, it is confected drama, endless talking heads who feed on controversy and conflict.</p>
<p>As coverage of the coronavirus shows, each hour must be more alarming than the last. The language of fear is its stock in trade: catastrophe, nightmare, disaster, lockdown.</p>
<p>On one recent prime-time news bulletin, the deep cleaning of an infected nursing home was described as “like something out of a disaster movie”. Dreadful cliché aside, right now is real life not frightening enough?</p>
<p>A seasoned foreign correspondent referred to numbers of infections “soaring” in Spain. Why not simply that Spain recorded X number of new coronavirus cases? Because numbers “soaring” sounds more urgent, more alarming.</p>
<p>Such hyperbole lacks context and nuance. The second world war was “catastrophic”; the 2005 Asian tsunami was a “nightmare”; we can look back on the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic as a “disaster”. Thankfully, the efforts of governments, health officials and the sacrifice of a responsible public means we are not there yet, and hopefully never will be. Journalists should spare their adjectives in case they really need them.</p>
<p>Think too of the ubiquitous use of wartime analogies. We are told we are in a “<a href="https://9now.nine.com.au/60-minutes/scott-morrison-tara-brown-60-minutes-interview-australians-must/d97b4ea3-98c6-49bc-8845-8dcf3de8de8b">war</a>” against the virus; governments are on a war footing; prime ministers and presidents are now wartime leaders. Yes, this is a terrible time. Lives are being lost. But we are in a battle, not in a war.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/thanks-to-coronavirus-scott-morrison-will-become-a-significant-prime-minister-135314">Thanks to coronavirus, Scott Morrison will become a significant prime minister</a>
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<p>In my 30-year journalism career I covered wars in several countries. Right now there are people homeless, their neighbourhoods bombed-out shells; there is no electricity, scant medical facilities, no schools, no work. Their governments do not pay them for wages lost. What they would give to be confined to their homes with running water, power, air conditioning, televisions, Netflix, internet. They count themselves lucky just to be alive.</p>
<p>News images, too, are used to provoke an emotional response. Stories about supermarkets invariably use footage of empty shelves. My local supermarket is well stocked and people behave with courtesy and calm. We are assured Australia has more than enough food, but images of empty shelves heighten the sense of siege.</p>
<p>As this crisis has been a stress test of our politics, economy, health systems and society, so too is it a stress test of our media. Healthy journalism is vital for a healthy democracy. A free and open media in China could have stopped the Chinese Communist Party from covering up the initial outbreak of coronavirus in Wuhan last year. This worldwide pandemic might have been averted.</p>
<p>There is much excellent work being done in newsrooms stretched to capacity. But journalism culture carries its own virus: anxiety.</p>
<p>Now more then ever, the media should inform, not inflame. Less crisis and more context. Resist the worst instincts. The public needs no reminding this is serious. </p>
<p>People are afraid and not just of the virus: businesses will be lost, relationships broken, and mental health will suffer. Psychologists already warn of the potential for increased suicide. We don’t need media-generated anxiety. </p>
<p>As the tweet on Q&amp;A read, we are calmer when we hear from experts. We need the news: we need it rigorous and unembellished. We do not need the illusion of news.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/135550/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Stan Grant does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Now more than ever, the media should inform, not inflame.Stan Grant, Vice Chancellors Chair Australian/Indigenous Belonging, Charles Sturt UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1333472020-03-11T19:19:46Z2020-03-11T19:19:46ZCoronavirus is a huge story, so journalists must apply the highest ethical standards in how they tell it<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/319812/original/file-20200311-116232-2qy0ii.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;rect=365%2C11%2C3371%2C1982&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=496&amp;fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wes Mountain/The Conversation</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>From an ethical perspective, covering the coronavirus story is really hard to do well.</p>
<p>The reason for this lies in an inherent conflict between two ethical obligations: the obligation to truth-telling and the obligation not to add unjustifiably to public anxiety.</p>
<p>From the earliest days, when the virus spread rapidly in China and began to cause deaths, a degree of anxiety enveloped the world. This swiftly accelerated into panic as it became clear that, in an age of global connectedness, no country was going to be immune.</p>
<p>In Australia, as elsewhere, this public panic was exemplified by the run on toilet paper.</p>
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Leer más:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-are-people-stockpiling-toilet-paper-we-asked-four-experts-132975">Why are people stockpiling toilet paper? We asked four experts</a>
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<p>By its nature, the spread of COVID-19 (the disease caused by coronavirus) is the cause of high public anxiety and is not of itself the product of media reporting.</p>
<p>However, some of the coverage is unquestionably adding to that anxiety in a way that is ethically unjustifiable.</p>
<p>The media’s job is to tell the story in the detail necessary for a good public understanding of what is going on. They do this by giving it the prominence justified by its impact on people’s lives and by couching it in language proportional to the risks facing the community.</p>
<p>If that adds to public anxiety, then that is an unavoidable consequence of keeping the public informed. We have already seen what happens if the alternative prevails. When China tried to cover up the seriousness of the first outbreak, precious days were lost in developing a response, and people were denied information they were entitled to have.</p>
<p>All this is easy to say in abstract terms, but what does it mean for the way journalists do their job?</p>
<p>In short, it means the adoption of a triage system to guide editorial decision-making.</p>
<p>The stories we have seen so far fall into three broad categories.</p>
<p>The first and most important are stories containing health advice, information about the spread of the illness, who is at risk, what governments and other authorities are doing in response, what is happening to the economy, and how ordinary life is being disrupted.</p>
<p>The second are less important, though perhaps more entertaining: a fight in a supermarket over toilet paper; people hoarding tinned food.</p>
<p>And the third are rubbish: rank beat-ups and crazy conspiracy theories.</p>
<p>For example, there was <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/mediawatch/episodes/virus/12016748">a beat-up last week</a> about Qantas passengers being stranded in Singapore because of the virus. Just nonsense. Their plane had a mechanical fault. The story should have been spiked.</p>
<p>And there was Bronwyn Bishop’s <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/mediawatch/episodes/toilet/12039942">unhinged contribution</a> on Sky at night that the Chinese government had unleashed the virus to kill off the weak in their community. </p>
<p>More generally, it is the secondary stories that are likely to add to the panic and tell the least important information. The reason is that they tend to be entertaining rather than informative and therefore likely to be replicated online in contexts where the ethical norms of journalism do not apply.</p>
<p>Newsrooms need to think hard about the play they give these stories – whether to run them at all and, if they do, how much prominence to give them.</p>
<p>The news values known as “consequence” and “significance” need to be prioritised over those of “novelty” and “entertainment”.</p>
<p>Language also matters. It needs to be proportional to the telling of a truthful account. </p>
<p>If there is confusion, journalists should say so. But is the situation “chaotic”? The further up the rhetorical scale a journalist goes, the likelier it is that they will add unjustifiably to public anxiety.</p>
<p>All this gets harder still when people in public life spread misinformation, as Victorian Health Minister Jenny Mikakos did by making a baseless accusation against Toorak GP Dr Chris Higgins.</p>
<p>The media had to cover this, even though doing so obviously caused Higgins harm. They had to report <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/08/doctor-who-had-coronavirus-demands-apology-from-victorian-health-minister-over-inaccuracies">she said she was “flabbergasted”</a> by Higgins turning up to work “with flu-like symptoms” .</p>
<p>Mikakos is the health minister. What she says carries authority. And she needs to be held to account.</p>
<p>Equally, journalists also had to report Higgins’s response: the fact that he followed all the rules and did not knowingly treat patients while he had COVID-19, as Mikakos implied he did.</p>
<p>And journalists had to report that <a href="https://www.sbs.com.au/news/australian-doctors-rally-behind-chris-higgins-call-on-victorian-health-minister-to-apologise">Higgins received strong backing</a> from his medical colleagues, including the Australian Medical Association (AMA), and that they called on Mikakos to apologise.</p>
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Leer más:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-what-are-the-australian-governments-powers-to-quarantine-people-in-a-coronavirus-outbreak-132877">Explainer: what are the Australian government's powers to quarantine people in a coronavirus outbreak?</a>
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<p>It is also legitimate for journalists to be asking who told the minister what and when, and how she arrived at the conclusion she did. It is part of the media’s watchdog function. In an atmosphere of high public anxiety, people in authority are rightly held to a high standard of accountability.</p>
<p>No one is saying Mikakos acted in bad faith, but she spread misinformation at a time when she herself is saying the community needs reliable information.</p>
<p>One wit has labelled her handling of the Higgins case #flabbergaslighting.</p>
<p>COVID-19 is a huge story. It directly concerns the health and welfare of the public at large, puts great pressure on public resources, stretches the capacity of governments to respond, disrupts the economy and brings risks that so far are not fully understood. People everywhere are understandably worried.</p>
<p>For exactly those reasons, it imposes a heavy obligation on journalists to apply the highest ethical standards in how they tell it.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/133347/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Denis Muller no recibe salario, ni ejerce labores de consultoría, ni posee acciones, ni recibe financiación de ninguna compañía u organización que pueda obtener beneficio de este artículo, y ha declarado carecer de vínculos relevantes más allá del cargo académico citado.</span></em></p>It is the stories that are entertaining rather than informative that are most likely to add to the panic, and media outlets need to be careful about what they publish.Denis Muller, Senior Research Fellow, Centre for Advancing Journalism, University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1224642019-09-01T19:47:39Z2019-09-01T19:47:39ZOn an average day, only 1% of Australian news stories quoted a young person. No wonder so few trust the media<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/290054/original/file-20190829-106524-vykecs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;rect=0%2C10%2C7200%2C4774&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=496&amp;fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">One clear way for news organisations to begin building trust with young people is to start including them in news stories in meaningful ways. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Tim Mossholder/Unsplash</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>On one unremarkable day in April this year, just over a third of news stories were about issues likely to impact young people, such as policies to address climate change, school teacher training, the impact of automation on future employment and proposed social media regulation.</p>
<p>Our <a href="https://westernsydney.edu.au/medialiteracy/research/snapshot">snapshot study</a> analysed the television and newspaper news in Australia on April 1, 2019. And our aim was to critique how young Australians aged four to 18 were included and represented in these traditional news forms that remain influential and popular, despite the rise of social media. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="http://theconversation.com/media-files-australians-trust-in-news-media-is-falling-as-concern-over-fake-news-grows-119099">Media Files: Australians' trust in news media is falling as concern over 'fake news' grows</a>
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<p>In total, we analysed 276 news stories across eight national, state and regional newspapers and four national and state television news bulletins. </p>
<p>Of all the news stories we examined, only 11% included the views or experiences of young people. Usually, their inclusion was via adult mediators like parents, police and experts. Just 1% of news stories directly quoted a young person.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/290044/original/file-20190829-106517-w6q6ny.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=1000&amp;fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/290044/original/file-20190829-106517-w6q6ny.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/290044/original/file-20190829-106517-w6q6ny.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=600&amp;h=423&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/290044/original/file-20190829-106517-w6q6ny.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=30&amp;auto=format&amp;w=600&amp;h=423&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/290044/original/file-20190829-106517-w6q6ny.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=15&amp;auto=format&amp;w=600&amp;h=423&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/290044/original/file-20190829-106517-w6q6ny.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=531&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/290044/original/file-20190829-106517-w6q6ny.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=30&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=531&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/290044/original/file-20190829-106517-w6q6ny.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=15&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=531&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The topic of news stories where young people are the focus.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>When young people were included in the news, we found it was most likely related to accidents and social welfare. They were absent from stories about the economy, politics, the environment and climate change. </p>
<h2>Young people used as visual props</h2>
<p>We also found young people were ten times more likely to be seen rather than heard in the news. </p>
<p>Of the news stories we analysed that day, 11% included a photograph or video footage of a young person or young people. Television news included images of young people almost twice as often as newspapers. </p>
<p>However, our analysis of these images finds young people are usually only peripherally included in the substance of the story, often acting as visual props to introduce colour or emotion, rather than being an integral part of the story itself. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="http://theconversation.com/how-fake-news-gets-into-our-minds-and-what-you-can-do-to-resist-it-114921">How fake news gets into our minds, and what you can do to resist it</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>In this way, young Australians are not being given opportunities to speak about themselves and their experiences, with journalists not consulting them or taking them seriously. </p>
<p>The Australian news media provide an important lens through which we see ourselves and our nation: they both reflect and influence public discourse and priorities. So young people should be meaningfully included in the news to ensure we are all better informed of their views and experiences.</p>
<h2>A trust crisis affecting the future of news</h2>
<p>We’ve been hearing a great deal about the future of news media in recent years. Usually these public conversations focus on how news organisations survive in the digital age; the role of <a href="https://theconversation.com/from-richard-boyle-and-witness-k-to-media-raids-its-time-whistleblowers-had-better-protection-121555">whistleblowers</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/media-raids-raise-questions-about-afps-power-and-weak-protection-for-journalists-and-whistleblowers-118328">journalists</a> in a global news environment; and the issue of so-called <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-fake-news-gets-into-our-minds-and-what-you-can-do-to-resist-it-114921">fake news</a> and its impact on democracy. </p>
<p>These issues are all urgent and complex. Perhaps it’s no surprise, then, that they have been the focus of our efforts in Australia to address problems associated with news. This includes through two ongoing parliamentary enquiries: <a href="https://www.accc.gov.au/focus-areas/inquiries/digital-platforms-inquiry">one by the ACCC</a> focused on news and digital platforms, and a second focused on <a href="https://theconversation.com/parliamentary-press-freedom-inquiry-letting-the-fox-guard-the-henhouse-119820">press freedom</a>. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="http://theconversation.com/from-richard-boyle-and-witness-k-to-media-raids-its-time-whistleblowers-had-better-protection-121555">From Richard Boyle and Witness K to media raids: it’s time whistleblowers had better protection</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>But surely the crisis in trust of the news media is just as urgent as these other issues. </p>
<p>The Australian 2019 Digital News report <a href="https://theconversation.com/australians-are-less-interested-in-news-and-consume-less-of-it-compared-to-other-countries-survey-finds-118333">found</a> just 44% of adults trusted Australian news. And our own 2017 survey of 1000 young Australians aged eight to 16 <a href="https://www.westernsydney.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0009/1331847/EMBARGOED_to_Monday,_November_20,_2017._News_and_Australian_Children,_How_Young_People_Access,_Perceive_and_are_Affected_by_the_News-small1.pdf">found</a> just 23% have high levels of trust in news media organisations. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/290046/original/file-20190829-106517-1tvm4sz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;rect=0%2C4%2C2733%2C1815&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=1000&amp;fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/290046/original/file-20190829-106517-1tvm4sz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;rect=0%2C4%2C2733%2C1815&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/290046/original/file-20190829-106517-1tvm4sz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=600&amp;h=400&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/290046/original/file-20190829-106517-1tvm4sz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=30&amp;auto=format&amp;w=600&amp;h=400&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/290046/original/file-20190829-106517-1tvm4sz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=15&amp;auto=format&amp;w=600&amp;h=400&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/290046/original/file-20190829-106517-1tvm4sz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=503&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/290046/original/file-20190829-106517-1tvm4sz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=30&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=503&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/290046/original/file-20190829-106517-1tvm4sz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=15&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=503&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">More representation of young people in the news will boost their trust in the media.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Keenan Constance/Unsplash</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This lack of trust is important to consider since many of the young people who responded to our national survey said they felt passionate about the role news played in their lives. </p>
<p>For instance, a boy in our study, aged 12 from Queensland, said: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Kids need to understand the world around us and not to just get scary news like murders and hurricanes [but] more news about jobs of the future and things that will be more helpful for our age group.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>And a girl, 10, from Tasmania said: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>[News] helps me understand the world and know what’s going on and how it might affect me and my family and friends.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>The way forward</h2>
<p>It’s likely young people’s lack of trust in news organisations is closely linked to their lack of representation.</p>
<p>One clear way for news organisations to begin building trust with young people is to start including them in news stories in meaningful ways. </p>
<p>It doesn’t have to be complicated. For example, in the many instances where young people are photographed, but not quoted, they could be asked to give their opinion or relay their experience. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="http://theconversation.com/australians-are-less-interested-in-news-and-consume-less-of-it-compared-to-other-countries-survey-finds-118333">Australians are less interested in news and consume less of it compared to other countries, survey finds</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>News organisations could also direct resources to undertake research about stories involving young people. They could build connections with youth-focused organisations who are well connected to young people, familiar with their experiences and with current research.</p>
<p>And they could track who they include as sources, experts and witnesses (considering gender, age range, race and ethnicity) to support organisational reflection on representation and bias.</p>
<p>This will take time and resources, but it seems prudent at a time when news organisations are trying to rebuild the public’s confidence in news integrity and support their own future viability.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/122464/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The research report discussed in this article is part of project, Advancing the News Media Literacy of Young Australians. This project is funded by the Museum of Australian Democracy, Google Australia and Western Sydney University. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>The research report discussed in this article is part of project, Advancing the News Media Literacy of Young Australians. This project is funded by the Museum of Australian Democracy, Google Australia and Western Sydney University.</span></em></p>Of all the news stories examined in a snapshot study, only 11% included the views or experiences of young people. And that inclusion was usually via adults.Tanya Notley, Senior Lecturer in Digital Media, Western Sydney UniversityMichael Dezuanni, Associate professor, Creative Industries Faculty, Queensland University of TechnologyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1198112019-07-04T03:54:06Z2019-07-04T03:54:06ZMedia Files: Washington Post weather editor Jason Samenow on how weather coverage is evolving – and building audience growth<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/282594/original/file-20190704-126355-1c7tl7r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;rect=0%2C0%2C1194%2C799&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=496&amp;fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The world&#39;s weather is changing and the media needs to keep up.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/dizmangphotography/18318960736/in/photolist-tUMsNC-cRUbNm-vJzYLB-KWtDpd-sEbc2Z-JiGs2A-u4DhWL-K8dpcH-JiJV1v-GEYasS-u11Mqb-u4DfmA-KfbfuP-tnQfhn-u6YK4z-tPoAQQ-ezjLzv-o8pyt6-ZMwopP-eznrjh-eboewm-snHtR4-SHLXiT-o3gFDK-e87RQ8-8i699t-9Tqm2F-nJ13gy-89RVhr-o6wwqA-nP99bG-9Cqvju-59oJyJ-tfUzgj-HsJ9fb-tVtPJ8-tVkSQq-ucW2N6-ucW7tD-ucW9Sg-KxCCQx-tVtKte-tfUvem-tMryMj-83M8AX-GsqCcs-n8TXYK-8oo3jM-csBLc7-Jg72FK">Flickr/Shannon Dizmang</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>When he founded the blog CapitalWeather.com 15 years ago in Washington DC, Jason Samenow was working for the US government as a climate change analyst. A full-time media career was probably the last thing on his mind. </p>
<p>But the blog – which became known as the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/capital-weather-gang/?utm_term=.c93483264981">Capital Weather Gang</a> – gained traction, and was gradually absorbed by The Washington Post. </p>
<p>These days, Samenow is chief meteorologist and weather editor for the Post, where his work is driving audience growth and engagement. </p>
<p>Lawrie Zion caught up with him for a chat about how digital media has changed the way that we connect to the weather, and why it’s wrong for weather editors to leave climate change out of the discussion. </p>
<h2>New to podcasts?</h2>
<p>Podcasts are often best enjoyed using a podcast app. All iPhones come with the Apple Podcasts app already installed, or you may want to listen and subscribe on another app such as Pocket Casts (click <a href="https://pca.st/7anl">here</a> to listen to Media Files on Pocket Casts).</p>
<p>You can also hear us on any of the apps below. Just pick a service from one of those listed below and click on the icon to find Media Files.</p>
<p><a href="https://itunes.apple.com/au/podcast/media-files/id1434250621?mt=2"><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/233721/original/file-20180827-75984-1gfuvlr.png" alt="Listen on Apple Podcasts" width="268" height="68"></a> <a href="https://www.google.com/podcasts?feed=aHR0cHM6Ly90aGVjb252ZXJzYXRpb24uY29tL2F1L3BvZGNhc3RzL21lZGlhZmlsZXMucnNz"><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/233720/original/file-20180827-75978-3mdxcf.png" alt="" width="268" height="68"></a></p>
<p><a href="https://radiopublic.com/go?url=https%3A%2F%2Ftheconversation.com%2Fau%2Fpodcasts%2Fmediafiles.rss"><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/233717/original/file-20180827-75990-86y5tg.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=268&amp;fit=clip" alt="Listen on RadioPublic" width="268" height="87"></a></p>
<hr>
<h2>Additional credits</h2>
<p>Producer: Andy Hazel.</p>
<p>Theme music: Susie Wilkins.</p>
<h2>Image</h2>
<p>Flickr/Shannon Dizmang</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/119811/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The Washington Post's weather editor explains how digital media changed the way we connect to the weather, and why it's wrong for weather editors to leave climate change out of the discussion.Andrea Carson, Associate Professor at La Trobe University. Department of Politics, Media and Philosophy, La Trobe UniversityLawrie Zion, Professor of Journalism, La Trobe UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1193002019-07-02T02:28:47Z2019-07-02T02:28:47ZK-pop fans are creative, dedicated and social - we should take them seriously<p>The phenomenal success of K-pop (Korean pop music) and its biggest export bands such as BTS, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exo_(band)">EXO</a>, <a href="https://www.nst.com.my/lifestyle/groove/2019/06/499438/showbiz-blackpink-beats-bts-most-streamed-song-k-pop-act-spotify">Blackpink</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monsta_X">MONSTA X</a> and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Velvet_(group)">Red Velvet</a> can largely be credited to their highly active and dedicated fandom. This is a group not to be dissed, as Channel Nine discovered recently after airing a segment on “global crazes” featuring BTS, a Billboard chart-topping band. </p>
<p>The program’s attempt to poke fun at the band quickly <a href="https://www.sbs.com.au/popasia/blog/2019/06/20/channel-9-comment-bts-segment-aired-20-one">drew the ire of dedicated fans</a> (known as the BTS Army) who felt the presenters had not only disrespected the band, but also its diverse, global support base. They mounted a social media campaign, accusing Nine of racism. The <a href="https://thenewdaily.com.au/entertainment/stage/2019/06/20/bts-fans-channel-nine/">hashtag #Channel9Apologise went viral</a> and the station issued a statement apologising for offending anyone.</p>
<p>K-pop fans often complain how Australian mainstream media is, in their view, racist and insensitive in its <a href="http://www.helloasia.com.au/news/why-are-bts-fans-always-dismissed-as-hysterical-teenage-girls/?fbclid=IwAR1TAeqFjwY698N_8AyHuoCUElOpSteMrqAe1Ds05i3StCj3lTj9iOEDi44">reporting</a> on the groups. While it may be tempting to dismiss fan activity as evidence of highly successful marketing techniques, these fan networks actually perform an increasingly important role as a source of social belonging. </p>
<p>Contrary to common perception, most fans are not socially withdrawn nerds – because the social aspect of K-pop fandom is central to being a true fan. Fan clubs typically consist of global networks of loosely organised local chapters, comprising diverse nationalities and ages. There are also many middle-aged and retired fans, some of whom (such as <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shinhwa">Shinhwa</a> fans) have grown older with their idols. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/mMAqezthEcY?wmode=transparent&amp;start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">20th anniversary concert of K-pop band Shinhwa.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>While there are no reliable statistics quantifying the number of K-pop fans, <a href="http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/art/2019/01/732_261877.html">The Korea Foundation</a> (which is affiliated with Korea’s ministry of foreign affairs) recently estimated the number of fans of Korean pop culture in general to be 89 million across 113 countries. BTS was the first Asian act to surpass 5 billion streams on <a href="https://www.billboard.com/articles/news/bts/8506971/bts-first-asian-kpop-artist-5-billion-streams-spotify">Spotify</a>. They have over 9 billion <a href="https://kworb.net/youtube/artist/bts.html">views</a> on YouTube and 20.7 million <a href="https://twitter.com/BTS_twt">Twitter followers</a>, compared with EXO’s <a href="https://twitter.com/weareoneEXO">5.7 million </a>, Blackpink’s <a href="https://twitter.com/ygofficialblink?lang=en">2.5 million</a> and MONSTA X’s <a href="https://twitter.com/OfficialMonstaX">3 million</a>.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-what-is-k-pop-and-j-pop-20956">Explainer: what is K-pop and J-pop?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Embodying an ‘ideal self’</h2>
<p>K-Pop bands are not simply perceived as pretty and talented people to be admired from afar. They are seen as the ultimate embodiment of “ideal self” achieved through hard work.</p>
<p>The work of <a href="https://www.soompi.com/article/1287037wpp/girl-group-members-pulled-long-training-years-blessed-us-debut">transforming</a> from an ordinary mortal into a K-pop star is often well documented through groups’ official social media feeds or behind-the-scenes videos. Polished (often cosmetically enhanced) appearances are seen as the hallmark of investment in self. </p>
<p>K-pop band members also work hard to reduce social distance between themselves and their fans; either by meeting them in person or using social media. In a recent tweet, BTS member J-Hope posted a photo in anticipation of a fan meet the following day, with the line “Thank you Army! See you tomorrow!”. </p>
<div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props='{"tweetId":"1142453358478757893"}'></div>
<p>The use of purple heart emojis has a special significance, representing the connection the band and BTS fans share.</p>
<p>Frequent livestream interactions with fans via Instagram live or South Korean video service VLive also reduce the social distance between idols and fans, who can quickly build a real <a href="https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/e/9781315776774/chapters/10.4324/9781315776774-12">sense of attachment</a> to their idol.</p>
<p>As “ideal selves”, K-pop stars rarely say or do anything controversial and are thus stable, predictable role models. (Although when they do trip up, as happened recently with the former Big Bang boy band member Seungri, the fall from grace can be <a href="https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/music/la-et-ms-burning-sun-20190319-story.html">swift</a>).</p>
<p>K-pop fandom involves much more than buying merchandise or attending concerts – fans are cultural producers themselves. They run fan sites, create self-designed band merchandise and produce fan chants: lyrics shouted out during performances at collectively agreed points of the song.</p>
<p>Fan chants are also popular in <a href="https://jpninfo.com/27237">Japan</a>, but K-pop fans have taken them to a new level. They are disseminated through <a href="https://btsfanchants.com/love-yourself-her/dna/">fan sites</a> and social media. </p>
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<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ooPhhLz3W0A?wmode=transparent&amp;start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">A K-pop band performance and fan chant.</span></figcaption>
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<p>Fan clubs even have <a href="https://www.sbs.com.au/popasia/blog/2018/08/28/17-k-pop-fandom-names-and-their-meanings">unique pet names</a> bands use, such as Exo-L (“L” for the love the band has for their fans) and V.I.P. for Big Bang (denoting how each fan is important to them).</p>
<p>Committed K-pop fans also demonstrate their dedication through <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/emilyblake1/2018/04/04/k-pop-numbers/#5cc7851e48ab">orchestrated mass voting</a> to ensure the bands’ success in music charts and awards. In return, the idols acknowledge the importance of their fans, and actively seek to nurture this relationship. </p>
<p>“Thank you to ARMYs for giving us such a big happiness. We will never forget the magical time we had with you at the Magic Shop”, said BTS in a <a href="https://twitter.com/Kpop_Herald/status/1142957487173169152">tweet</a> after wrapping up the fan meetings in Seoul and Busan. The Seoul event was <a href="https://www.vlive.tv/product/ds00u00u00000109">beamed live to global audiences</a> – allowing for those outside Korea to “take part” through live streaming and commenting.</p>
<h2>Philanthropy</h2>
<p>Philanthropy is an increasingly important part of K-pop fandom. Many fan clubs pool resources to support <a href="https://www.sbs.com.au/popasia/blog/2017/06/13/fans-make-charitable-donation-exos-xiumins-name">charities</a>. BTS have also <a href="https://www.unicef.org/press-releases/we-have-learned-love-ourselves-so-now-i-urge-you-speak-yourself">promoted</a> UNICEF, joining forces with it in their Love Myself campaign, which raised more than US$1.4 million (much via direct donations from fans).</p>
<p>Western media should also bear in mind that bands such as BTS are not popular in spite of being Korean, but precisely because they <em>are</em> Korean. </p>
<p>The number of Australians learning Korean has grown exponentially over the past few years, with five major Australian Universities now offering a BA major in Korean Studies. Much of that interest has likely have been sparked by an encounter with <a href="https://lighthouse.mq.edu.au/article/april-2019/do-you-know-bts-how-k-pop-superstars-reveal-aussie-love-affair-with-korean-culture?fbclid=IwAR1hX7AykDVQUVCgtY-Fgd0aIdCY2kHIP78I1Tm9gU5YK9aOjn4lZtJmJnE">Korean popular culture</a>. </p>
<p>Critics may also be wise to note that fan clubs such as the global BTS Army are increasingly succeeding in what years of government policies in Australia have failed to do: a real and meaningful desire to connect with cultures outside our borders.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/119300/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Joanna Elfving-Hwang does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>K-pop fans are a global network of varied ages and nationalities, who have an active, creative and symbiotic relationship with their idols.Joanna Elfving-Hwang, Associate Professor of Korean Studies, University of Western AustraliaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1169982019-05-13T04:59:44Z2019-05-13T04:59:44ZMedia Files: Facebook's Mia Garlick on #Ausvotes2019 and how Australian MPs use social media<p>As we enter the final straight of the Australian election campaign, we ask you: how much of your information about the issues and the candidates comes from social media? </p>
<p>Today’s Media Files podcast examines the role of social media in election campaigns, including the spread of “fake news” and foreign political interference. </p>
<p>Joining us is Facebook’s policy director Mia Garlick to help us understand the scale of traffic on social media.</p>
<h2>New to podcasts?</h2>
<p>Podcasts are often best enjoyed using a podcast app. All iPhones come with the Apple Podcasts app already installed, or you may want to listen and subscribe on another app such as Pocket Casts (click <a href="https://pca.st/7anl">here</a> to listen to Media Files on Pocket Casts).</p>
<p>You can also hear us on any of the apps below. Just pick a service from one of those listed below and click on the icon to find Media Files.</p>
<p><a href="https://itunes.apple.com/au/podcast/media-files/id1434250621?mt=2"><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/233721/original/file-20180827-75984-1gfuvlr.png" alt="Listen on Apple Podcasts" width="268" height="68"></a> <a href="https://www.google.com/podcasts?feed=aHR0cHM6Ly90aGVjb252ZXJzYXRpb24uY29tL2F1L3BvZGNhc3RzL21lZGlhZmlsZXMucnNz"><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/233720/original/file-20180827-75978-3mdxcf.png" alt="" width="268" height="68"></a></p>
<p><a href="https://radiopublic.com/go?url=https%3A%2F%2Ftheconversation.com%2Fau%2Fpodcasts%2Fmediafiles.rss"><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/233717/original/file-20180827-75990-86y5tg.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=268&amp;fit=clip" alt="Listen on RadioPublic" width="268" height="87"></a></p>
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<h2>Additional credits</h2>
<p>Producers: Andy Hazel and Marg Purdam.</p>
<p>Theme music: Susie Wilkins.</p>
<h2>Image</h2>
<p>Mick Tsikas/AAP</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/116998/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Andrea Carson receives funding from The Australian Research Council for a discovery on the role of big data in public policy decision-making. She has previously researched digital newsrooms on a Facebook-funded research project in 2017.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Andrew Dodd no recibe salario, ni ejerce labores de consultoría, ni posee acciones, ni recibe financiación de ninguna compañía u organización que pueda obtener beneficio de este artículo, y ha declarado carecer de vínculos relevantes más allá del cargo académico citado.</span></em></p>Today's Media Files podcast examines the role of social media in election campaigns, including the spread of 'fake news' and foreign political interference.Andrea Carson, Associate Professor at La Trobe University. Department of Politics, Media and Philosophy, La Trobe UniversityAndrew Dodd, Director of the Centre for Advancing Journalism, University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1136562019-03-31T19:13:53Z2019-03-31T19:13:53ZFrom irreverence to irrelevance: the rise and fall of the bad-tempered tabloids<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/266471/original/file-20190329-139352-3eylba.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=496&amp;fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Refusing to change with the times, Australia&#39;s tabloids now cater to an aged, monocultural and alienated constituency.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>“Kick this mob out” shouted the front page of The Daily Telegraph reporting the calling of the 2013 election in which Tony Abbott was to triumph. Restraint and modesty have never been the hallmarks of tabloid newspapers. Sometimes they celebrate what they claim is their impact – most famously when the London Sun proclaimed “It’s The Sun wot won it” after the 1992 Conservative victory.</p>
<p>But it is a long time since any tabloid newspaper could plausibly claim such a role because their reach has shrunk so markedly. In 1972, the biggest-selling newspaper in Australia was The Sun News Pictorial in Melbourne, with a daily circulation of 648,000. Its stablemate, the Melbourne Herald, was the biggest-selling afternoon newspaper with 498,000.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/christchurch-attacks-provide-a-new-ethics-lesson-for-professional-media-113840">Christchurch attacks provide a new ethics lesson for professional media</a>
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<p>By 2018, the print circulation of the merged Herald Sun was around 303,000, still the largest in the country. However, in 1972, Melbourne’s population was 2.6 million and by 2018 it was 4.9 million. The Sun’s circulation in 1972 was around one-quarter of Melbourne’s population. In 2018, the Herald Sun’s was about one-14th.</p>
<h2>Sure, business models changed, but so did the tabloids’ temper</h2>
<p>This is a stunning story of commercial decline and failure. Of course, over the past two decades, all major media have had their business models challenged by the digital revolution. But the decline of newspapers in relation to population had already been going on for several decades, partly because the first source of news for most people had become radio and television. My guess is that tabloid newspapers are the least likely of all legacy media to thrive in the digital age.</p>
<p>Beyond the changing technologies, where tabloid newspapers are on the wrong side of history, at least part of the reason for their decline is the changes in their own product. Viewed over decades, we can see how these papers, and especially those owned by Rupert Murdoch, have been on an editorial trajectory that is self-defeating and has added to their decline. Compare the Herald Sun of 2019 with the Melbourne Sun of the early 1970s.</p>
<p>One of Australia’s most distinguished journalists, Adrian Deamer, the first successful editor of The Australian until Murdoch fired him in 1971, later a senior legal adviser to Fairfax newspapers, had once been an editorial executive at The Sun. In the 1980s, he told me:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The Sun was extremely competent in its coverage of news. It was short and sharp, limited background. The Sun was then a serious tabloid, not like the Sydney afternoon newspapers. Its news covered the same things as The Age but sharper. It had a very wide, comprehensive coverage of the news, although it didn’t disregard trivia. It knew Melbourne better than any other paper knew its city. It presented Melbourne to Melbourne. It was very close to its readers. A remarkable association.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Tabloid newspapers are much less close to their readers now. One indicator suggesting this is how human interest news has changed. <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/17512781003642956">My research showed</a> that in The Sun/Herald-Sun and Daily Telegraph, human interest stories covering “ordinary people” comprised 10% of all stories in 1956 but only 3% by 2006. Entertainment-related and celebrity stories had grown from 3% to 12% in the same period. </p>
<p>Perhaps there were changes in public demand, but equally it was much cheaper to feed off the spin of the entertainment industry than invest in the reporters necessary to engage with community news.</p>
<h2>The columnist as outrage machine</h2>
<p>Perhaps the clearest sign of change is in the papers’ major columnists. For more than a decade, The Sun’s columnist was Keith Dunstan. His “A Place in the Sun” was marked by warmth and humour, eloquence and lightness of touch.</p>
<p>Today their major columnist is Andrew Bolt. Bolt is the highest-profile person to have been <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-09-28/bolt-found-guilty-of-breaching-discrimination-act/3025918">convicted of breaching Section 18C</a> of the Racial Discrimination Act in an error-filled article full of bile against his Aboriginal targets.</p>
<p>Recently, Paul Barry on <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/mediawatch/episodes/islam/10936140">Media Watch called out</a> some of Bolt’s Islamophobia </p>
<blockquote>
<p>And if our politicians will not speak frankly and protect us from Islam, watch out for a civil war. A frightened public will not put up with this for much longer, and will defend themselves. (15-7-2016)</p>
</blockquote>
<p>On March 25 this year, ten days after the massacre, <a href="https://www.heraldsun.com.au/blogs/andrew-bolt/christchurch-do-the-greens-have-blood-on-their-hands/news-story/c1b893d2b43ba280840f19cca2d64c1c">his headline</a> was:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Christchurch: Do the Greens have blood on their hands?</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The default setting for Bolt and his fellow columnists is outrage. There is rarely consideration, let alone appreciation, of contrasting views. Rather there is dismissal of climate “warmists”, political correctness, the left and so forth. Waging culture war is their core business.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/266472/original/file-20190329-139368-391f8x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=237&amp;fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/266472/original/file-20190329-139368-391f8x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=600&amp;h=783&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/266472/original/file-20190329-139368-391f8x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=30&amp;auto=format&amp;w=600&amp;h=783&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/266472/original/file-20190329-139368-391f8x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=15&amp;auto=format&amp;w=600&amp;h=783&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/266472/original/file-20190329-139368-391f8x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=984&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/266472/original/file-20190329-139368-391f8x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=30&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=984&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/266472/original/file-20190329-139368-391f8x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=15&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=984&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The London Sun famously boasted of its electoral clout in 1992.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikicommons</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Today’s tabloids are the result of a long editorial trajectory. Murdoch’s London Sun is often blamed for many of the sins of modern tabloids. It had the page three girl, was irresponsible in much of its reporting, and full of marketing gimmicks. But that paper for most of the 1970s, under Larry Lamb, had a refreshing cheekiness and humour. After another decade under Kelvin Mackenzie, the humour was gone. Its politics and its view of the world were consistently nasty.</p>
<p>Perhaps there was a marketing logic to this. Its main competitor in circulation, the Daily Mail, set out on a similar course denigrating racial minorities, calling for more punitive approaches to crime, and denouncing those it disagreed with.</p>
<p>Paul Dacre’s last memorable front page before he ended his 26-year reign as editor was about the Supreme Court judges who ruled that the executive government had to get parliamentary approval for Brexit. <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3903436/Enemies-people-Fury-touch-judges-defied-17-4m-Brexit-voters-trigger-constitutional-crisis.html">The story</a> screamed: </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/266655/original/file-20190330-70986-gk5lnx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/266655/original/file-20190330-70986-gk5lnx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=600&amp;h=790&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/266655/original/file-20190330-70986-gk5lnx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=30&amp;auto=format&amp;w=600&amp;h=790&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/266655/original/file-20190330-70986-gk5lnx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=15&amp;auto=format&amp;w=600&amp;h=790&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/266655/original/file-20190330-70986-gk5lnx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=992&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/266655/original/file-20190330-70986-gk5lnx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=30&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=992&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/266655/original/file-20190330-70986-gk5lnx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=15&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=992&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">GuerillaWire</span></span>
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</figure>
<h2>You’re either with us or against us</h2>
<p>Polarisation runs through the way tabloids frame the news – between triumph and disaster; heroes and villains; common sense and absurdity. These papers offer their readers certainty and simplicity rather than ambiguity and complexity; they give them the opportunity to vent their anger at the modern world.</p>
<p>We should not romanticise the old Herald and Weekly Times newspapers. Their editorial outlook was rooted in a smug conservatism. Their international coverage was simplistic and stereotyped. They were unresponsive to emerging issues on the political agenda – including feminism, multiculturalism, environmentalism and consumerism. They were indifferent to many of the injustices in society. </p>
<p>But there was a tolerance and occasionally a generosity of spirit that is markedly lacking in their successors. Moreover, they believed in honest reporting. This in addition to their large audiences which gave them a political relevance today’s tabloids lack. </p>
<p>Probably the most important journalist in the Canberra press gallery during the Whitlam government was Laurie Oakes, working for the Melbourne Sun. It is impossible to imagine any Murdoch tabloid reporter having that centrality today.</p>
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<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-the-right-wing-media-have-given-a-megaphone-to-reactionary-forces-in-the-liberal-party-101982">How the right-wing media have given a megaphone to reactionary forces in the Liberal Party</a>
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<p>Bill Shorten, unlike his predecessors Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard, has <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-01-28/bill-shorten-turns-down-meeting-with-rupert-murdoch/10755892">recently been reported</a> as deciding not to have dinner with Rupert Murdoch in New York to pay homage. This is a sound political judgment. Very few swinging voters are reading the Murdoch tabloids. </p>
<p>The papers are so set in their anti-Labor ways that there is little prospect of meaningful change in their news coverage. Moreover, the anti-Labor diet has been so constant that if the readers have not yet been persuaded to go against Labor it is hard to imagine what future coverage will make them do so.</p>
<p>Much of their coverage of the coming campaign can be anticipated. There will be unflattering photoshops of Labor or Green politicians. Each day will bring either a triumph for the government or starkly presented disasters and scandals for Labor and the Greens. But shrillness should not be mistaken for relevance.</p>
<p>For a long time, the tabloids have given up trying to engage with the range of views in a pluralistic and dynamic society. Instead they have practised ghetto journalism, catering to an aged, monocultural, alienated constituency. </p>
<p>Commercially, this is the equivalent of a political party knowing it is bound for defeat trying to save the furniture. Politically, it means their coverage is full of sound and fury, but signifying almost nothing of electoral relevance.</p>
<p><em>This piece has been corrected. It initially read that the “Kick this mob out” front page was on the day of the 2013 election. In fact, it was the day after the election was called.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/113656/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>
Rodney Tiffen is Emeritus Professor in Government and International Relations at the University of Sydney. He has received funding from the Australian Research Council. </span></em></p>Australian tabloid newspapers were once an important political force, the "voice of the people". But these days relevance has been replaced by shrillness.Rodney Tiffen, Emeritus Professor, Department of Government and International Relations, University of SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1065402018-12-06T04:20:27Z2018-12-06T04:20:27ZMedia Files: Covering Trump, funding news and the rise of impunity. The Guardian's Kath Viner on the big media stories of 2018<p>Today we’re taking a look back at some of the biggest issues of 2018 with special guest Kath Viner, editor-in-chief of The Guardian.</p>
<p>As the media grappled this year with how to cover Donald Trump and his “alternative facts”, Viner says it may be time for the media to pay less attention to what he says.</p>
<p>“Surely the thing to do is report on what is actually happening. So less on what Trump is saying but actually what his administration is doing,” Viner said.</p>
<p>“We don’t hear about what he’s doing because we’re too busy commenting on what he’s saying.”</p>
<p>We also talked about how newsrooms are funding journalism and particularly investigative journalism, in an era when journalists are increasingly vilified and even physically attacked or killed. </p>
<p>Viner also identified what she saw as the major challenges ahead.</p>
<p>“I think the other big challenge for next year is how we deal with the rise of the far right and how we report on it without inflaming it or over-exaggerating it,” she said.</p>
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Leer más:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/media-files-on-the-serena-williams-cartoon-and-how-the-uk-phone-hacking-scandal-led-to-a-media-crackdown-in-south-africa-103344">Media Files: On the Serena Williams cartoon -- and how the UK phone hacking scandal led to a media crackdown in South Africa</a>
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<p>Media Files is produced by a team of academics who have spent decades working in and reporting on the media industry. They’re passionate about sharing their understanding of the media landscape, especially how journalists operate, how media policy is changing, and how commercial manoeuvres and digital disruption are affecting the kinds of media and journalism we consume.</p>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/au/podcasts/mediafiles">Media Files</a> will be out every month, with occasional off-schedule episodes released when we’ve got fresh analysis we can’t wait to share with you. To make sure you don’t miss an episode, find us and <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/au/podcast/media-files/id1434250621">subscribe on Apple Podcasts</a>, in <a href="https://play.pocketcasts.com/">Pocket Casts</a> or wherever you find your podcasts. And while you’re there, please rate and review us - it really helps others to find us.</p>
<p>You can find more podcast episodes from The Conversation <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/podcast-3738">here</a>.</p>
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<p>
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<strong>
Leer más:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/media-files-what-does-the-future-newsroom-look-like-106158">Media Files: What does the future newsroom look like?</a>
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<p><em>Recorded at the University of Melbourne’s Centre for Advancing Journalism. Producer: Andy Hazel. Production assistance Gavin Nebauer.</em></p>
<h2>Additional audio</h2>
<p>Theme music by Susie Wilkins.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/106540/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Andrew Dodd receives funding from the Australian Research Council.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Matthew Ricketson receives funding from the Australian Research Council for two projects on which he is a chief investigator. He is president of the Journalism Education and Research Association of Australia (JERAA) and is the Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance&#39;s (MEAA) representative on the Australian Press Council.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Andrea Carson no recibe salario, ni ejerce labores de consultoría, ni posee acciones, ni recibe financiación de ninguna compañía u organización que pueda obtener beneficio de este artículo, y ha declarado carecer de vínculos relevantes más allá del cargo académico citado.</span></em></p>In conversation with Andrew Dodd, Andrea Carson and Matthew Ricketson, The Guardian's editor-in-chief discusses the big stories of 2018 and what she sees as the major challenges of 2019.Andrew Dodd, Director of the Centre for Advancing Journalism, University of MelbourneAndrea Carson, Associate Professor at LaTrobe University. Department of Communication and Media., La Trobe UniversityMatthew Ricketson, Professor of Communication, Deakin UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1021892018-08-31T04:27:04Z2018-08-31T04:27:04ZMedia Files: What does the Nine Fairfax merger mean for diversity and quality journalism?<p>You don’t need to be a journalist or a news junkie to be affected by the media. Its enormous influence in shaping our culture, politics and society means we all have a stake in how it functions, who it serves and the way it’s changing.</p>
<p>That’s why, today, we’re launching the first episode of Media Files, a new podcast featuring leading journalism researchers and working journalists taking a critical look at where the media is getting it right - and where there might be cause for concern.</p>
<p>Today’s episode is all about the Nine Fairfax merger, the largest media amalgamation in Australia in 30 years. Eric Beecher of Private Media, Stephen Mayne of the Mayne Report and ABC finance presenter Alan Kohler join presenters Andrew Dodd and Andrea Carson to discuss the implications for diversity and quality journalism.</p>
<p>Is this merger a welcome development, potentially boosting the capacity of journalists at outlets like The Age, The Sydney Morning Herald and the Financial Review to get on with the job of reporting news and revealing wrongdoing? Or is it a takeover that should ring alarm bells for anyone who cares about investigative journalism?</p>
<p>Media Files is produced by a team of journalists and academics who have spent decades working in and reporting on the media industry. They’re passionate about sharing their understanding of the media landscape, especially how media policy, commercial manoeuvres and digital disruption are affecting the kinds of media and journalism we consume. The media is evolving rapidly, as new platforms and trends come and go. As old media empires collapse, new ones are forming. But the need to protect diversity, public interest journalism and public broadcasting has, arguably, never been greater. </p>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/au/podcasts/mediafiles">Media Files</a> will be out every month, with occasional off-schedule episodes released when we’ve got fresh analysis we can’t wait to share with you. To make sure you don’t miss an episode, find us and <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/au/podcast/media-files/id1434250621">subscribe on Apple Podcasts</a>, in <a href="https://play.pocketcasts.com/">Pocket Casts</a> or wherever you find your podcasts. And while you’re there, please rate and review us - it really helps others to find us.</p>
<p><em>Recorded at a public forum at the University of Melbourne’s Centre for Advancing Journalism. Producer: Andy Hazel. Research: Charlotte Grieve and Jo Chandler.</em></p>
<h2>Additional audio</h2>
<p>Theme music by Susie Wilkins.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/102189/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Andrew Dodd receives funding from The Australian Research Council.</span></em></p>Eric Beecher of Private Media, Stephen Mayne of the Mayne Report and ABC finance presenter Alan Kohler join Andrew Dodd and Andrea Carson to discuss what the Nine Fairfax merger means for quality journalism.Andrew Dodd, Director of the Centre for Advancing Journalism, University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1020482018-08-24T06:38:50Z2018-08-24T06:38:50ZMedia Files: a new podcast from The Conversation<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/233386/original/file-20180824-149496-gtnka7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=496&amp;fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">idea</span> </figcaption></figure><p>No matter what we read, watch or listen to, we’re all affected by the media and how it works. It shapes our culture, drives policy and politics, and is an essential part of a functioning democracy. But how is the media in Australia changing? And is the media getting it right?</p>
<p>Media Files is a new monthly podcast, featuring discussion between media researchers, experts and working journalists on the big issues in the media landscape today. </p>
<p>Media Files is hosted by Andrew Dodd at the University of Melbourne, Andrea Carson at LaTrobe University and Matthew Ricketson at Deakin University, who between them have decades of experience reporting on and researching the media. Media Files will also involve journalists, editors and other practitioners reflecting on topics such as ethics, digital disruption and the trends affecting what we hear, watch and read. </p>
<p>As old media empires collapse, and new ones rise, the need to protect diversity, public interest journalism and public broadcasting has arguably never been greater.</p>
<p>Catch Media Files each month for discussion about the key issues and ideas facing this vital industry.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/102048/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Andrew Dodd receives funding from The Australian Research Council.</span></em></p>Media Files is a new monthly podcast, featuring discussion between media researchers, experts and working journalists on the big issues in the media landscape today.Andrew Dodd, Director of the Centre for Advancing Journalism, University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1013112018-08-19T19:49:58Z2018-08-19T19:49:58ZCan Australian streaming survive a fresh onslaught from overseas?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/231410/original/file-20180810-30443-122o9fc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=496&amp;fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">shutterstock</span> </figcaption></figure><p>Australia’s already punch-drunk streaming sector is set for even more upheaval, as CBS <a href="https://www.theage.com.au/entertainment/tv-and-radio/cbs-confirms-australian-streaming-platform-to-launch-by-end-of-2018-20180806-p4zvpf.html">will launch</a> its streaming service in Australia as early as October. </p>
<p>Disney is also <a href="https://www.thewaltdisneycompany.com/walt-disney-company-acquire-majority-ownership-bamtech/">set to launch its streaming service in 2019</a>. Based on recent history, Australia will likely be first up when it goes global.</p>
<p>The question is whether Australian streamers can compete locally with the global mammoths. Doing so might require coordination the likes of which we haven’t seen before.</p>
<p>This will impact not just what media Australians have access to, but <a href="https://www.screenaustralia.gov.au/sa/media-centre/news/2017/06-15-abs-survey-results">more than 31,000 people</a> employed by Australian media.</p>
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À lire aussi :
<a href="https://theconversation.com/netflix-arrival-will-be-a-tipping-point-for-tv-in-australia-38386">Netflix arrival will be a tipping point for TV in Australia</a>
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<p>We have already seen huge upheavals in Australian streaming.</p>
<p>Stan is the last remaining Australian streaming service from 2015, <a href="https://theconversation.com/netflix-arrival-will-be-a-tipping-point-for-tv-in-australia-38386">when I wrote about the official launch of Netflix in Australia</a>. At that time there were two Australian-based subscription video-on-demand (SVoD) services, Presto and Stan. </p>
<p>Presto, a joint venture between Seven and Foxtel, was shut down in early 2017. </p>
<p>Foxtel then launched <a href="https://www.foxtel.com.au/now/index.html">FoxtelNow</a> in June 2017. It is already set for an <a href="https://www.channelnews.com.au/foxtel-now-dead-new-4k-uhd-service-coming-cricket-launch/">overhaul</a> later this year, to include 4K streaming, along with sports and entertainment streaming packages. </p>
<h2>Aussie streaming services, more than just subscription</h2>
<p>In addition to Stan, there are also transactional video-on-demand (TVoD) services in Australia, although these are discussed far less. A TVoD service is based upon a single payment being made to view singular content for a limited time, e.g. you have streaming access to the latest release for 48 hours. </p>
<p>One such Australian service is <a href="https://www.quickflix.com.au">Quickflix</a>, which launched in 2014. It went <a href="https://theconversation.com/buyouts-mean-the-future-of-australian-video-on-demand-is-hard-to-picture-66683">into receivership</a> in 2016, before being saved and later relaunched. </p>
<p>Quickflix is still a streaming company, but retains the older <a href="https://www.quickflix.com.au/Join">disc mail-out service</a>. This mail-out service could help Quickflix survive against global streaming services. </p>
<p>With the <a href="https://www.smartcompany.com.au/technology/australias-video-shop-association-set-close-can-streaming-keep-demand-high-quality-video/">closure</a> of video stores and retail stores <a href="https://thenewdaily.com.au/money/consumer/2018/06/28/kmart-australia-dvds-cds/">removing discs</a> from their shelves, a mail-out service still has value for Australians with poor internet speed and access.</p>
<p>The other Australian TVoD service is <a href="https://www.ozflix.tv/">OzFlix</a>, which some Australians may not be aware of. </p>
<p>Its differentiation is plans to source “<a href="https://www.ozflix.tv/#!/page/412/about-us">Every Aussie Movie. Ever.</a>”. A big task, but its specific niche may help it survive the onslaught of global media streaming services, while also giving <a href="https://theconversation.com/with-the-rise-of-subscription-and-online-tv-we-need-to-rethink-local-content-rules-79496">local content</a> a dedicated home. </p>
<h2>Global media giants set their sights on Australia</h2>
<p>Australia has been the first country that many media companies expand to when moving outside their own region. <a href="https://theconversation.com/netflix-arrival-will-be-a-tipping-point-for-tv-in-australia-38386">Netflix</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/youtube-red-is-here-and-it-breaks-the-video-on-demand-mould-59656">YouTube Red</a> (now YouTube Premium) are two examples. </p>
<p>More recently we have seen <a href="https://theconversation.com/amazons-new-grand-tour-series-could-be-the-next-illegal-download-victim-68141">Amazon Prime Video</a> launch in late 2016, although it is yet to have a major uptake locally. </p>
<p>The arrival of CBS All Access will impact Stan particularly. Stan features a number of CBS programs, so future programming will need to be from other distributors or through greater investment in original content. </p>
<p>Disney is also set to <a href="https://www.channelnews.com.au/foxtel-netflix-set-to-face-off-with-new-disney-streaming-service/">acquire</a> 21st Century Fox. This will expand its catalogue on the new streaming service beyond its already huge catalogue. The Marvel movies look set to remain on current services, for now.</p>
<h2>Australians and streaming…. what next?</h2>
<p>A recent <a href="http://www.roymorgan.com/findings/7681-netflix-stan-foxtel-fetch-youtube-amazon-pay-tv-june-2018-201808020452">Roy Morgan report</a> found over 9.8 million Australians had access to Netflix, with Stan at over 2 million. While Stan is clearly behind, it has had a 39.2% increase in the last 12 months. </p>
<p>YouTube premium has over 1 million subscribers, FetchTV 710,000 and Amazon Prime Video last at 273,000 (an 87% increase year on year).</p>
<p>The arrival of CBS All Access and Disney will make an already crowded market only more so. But is more choice a good thing? </p>
<p>A 2014 <a href="http://www.nielsen.com/us/en/insights/news/2014/changing-channels-americans-view-just-17-channels-despite-record-number-to-choose-from.html">Nielsen report</a> showed the average channels receivable by US households grew from 129 in 2008 to 189 in 2013. But the average channels tuned in remained at 17.</p>
<p>On top of larger content libraries, the global players also have deeper pockets. Disney looks <a href="https://www.tubefilter.com/2018/08/14/star-wars-live-action-series-will-cost-100-million-be-streamed-exclusively-on-disneys-platform/">set to spend</a> US$100 million on a new Star Wars series for its streaming service. Netflix will <a href="https://variety.com/2018/digital/news/netflix-original-spending-85-percent-1202809623/">spend</a> more than US$8 billion on content in 2018 alone, and Amazon last year spent US$4 billion on content. </p>
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À lire aussi :
<a href="https://theconversation.com/with-the-rise-of-subscription-and-online-tv-we-need-to-rethink-local-content-rules-79496">With the rise of subscription and online TV, we need to rethink local content rules</a>
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<p>Australian services will need to have a point of difference. Quickflix and OzFlix have their points of difference, but what about a larger service like Stan? </p>
<p>Stan can’t compete with the global companies on quantity of content, so it must, like others, have a point of difference. </p>
<p>Stan could become a premium platform for content of which some is broadcast on Nine later. That would be a similar approach to when Australian FTA broadcasters would buy US content months after it was broadcast in the US – to save on costs.</p>
<p>For an Australian service to compete, a better solution would be a combined approach, an all-Australian streaming service that combines the strengths and finances of the Australian media industry. </p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.freeview.com.au/freeviewfv/">Freeview app</a> is an example of how Australian television has tried to work collaboratively but failed. The users can view all the catch-up content from Australian broadcasters, but to view it they are taken from the app to the specific broadcasters’ own catch-up apps. </p>
<p>This requires six apps in total to be installed to view all catch-up content.</p>
<p>But is the Australian media industry willing to come together to fight against global streaming media companies, or will they continue to battle each other? Failure here could result in a further decline in Australian media.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/101311/count.gif" alt="La Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Marc C-Scott is a board member of C31 Melbourne (Community Television Station).</span></em></p>Is the Australian media industry willing to come together to fight against global streaming media companies, or will Australian media continue to battle each other?Marc C-Scott, Lecturer in Screen Media, Victoria UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/944992018-04-23T05:07:05Z2018-04-23T05:07:05ZMedia reporting on women in the military is preserving a male dominated culture<p>The increased participation of women in the Australian Defence Force (ADF) has <a href="https://theconversation.com/tinkering-with-tribalism-women-and-cultural-change-in-the-adf-16329">gained great momentum</a> in recent times. However, women’s transition into the military has exposed the challenges of liberalising a male-dominated institution.</p>
<p>The media have a significant role in the way this cultural change will play out. In a <a href="https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.6076313.v1">recent study</a> on the broadsheet media’s representation of women in the ADF, we found the media report these issues in a way that perpetuates men’s dominance.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/crossing-the-line-why-the-royal-commission-examined-initiation-rituals-and-defence-abuse-61568">Crossing the line: why the royal commission examined initiation rituals and defence abuse</a>
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<p>One way we identified this was by examining the journalistic strategies and devices used to tell the women’s stories.</p>
<h2>Heroes and villains</h2>
<p>Historically, the media have been important in creating transparency around the “secret” affairs of the closed institution of the military. But they can also be complicit in sustaining men’s dominance – women currently make up only <a href="http://www.defence.gov.au/annualreports/16-17/chapter7.asp#workforce">16.7% of permanent ADF personnel</a>.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/lest-we-forget-women-also-serve-in-the-armed-forces-68684">Lest we forget: women also serve in the armed forces</a>
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<p>Our research investigated how female ADF personnel were represented by the Australian and Sydney Morning Herald newspapers between 1997 and 2017. We found the majority of reporting about women in the ADF concerned instances of gendered violence (bullying, abuse, sexual violence and harassment of women). </p>
<p>The Sydney Morning Herald reported on gendered violence 58% of the time and the Australian 71%.</p>
<h2>Sex, lies and Skype</h2>
<p>A significant 64% of reporting in our sample occurred after the <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/national/army-sacking-over-skype-sex-scandal-20131109-2x70k.html">2011 “Skype affair”</a>. In fact, 61% of all reporting in the sample after 2011 focused on this incident.</p>
<p>The “Skype affair” was when a male cadet at the Australian Defence Force Academy (ADFA) live-streamed a sexual encounter between himself and a female cadet to his male friends in another room. The young woman had no idea the filming was taking place. </p>
<p>When one of the male cadets reported the incident, <a href="http://www.canberratimes.com.au/federal-politics/political-opinion/nasty-smell-lingers-in-skype-affair-20120308-1unbl">the female cadet was disciplined</a> by her superiors for drinking alcohol, fraternising and being absent without leave on the night in question. She also faced harassment from her peers. This compelled her to take her story to the media.</p>
<p>The male cadet filmed while having sex and the cadet responsible for live streaming the sex act were found guilty in the ACT Supreme Court and <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/national/act/adfa-skype-scandal-cadets-sentenced-avoid-jail-20131023-2w0hz.html">sentenced to good behaviour bonds</a>. The ADF <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-11-09/adfa-cadet-sacked-over-skype-sex-scandal/5080834">terminated the first cadet’s employment</a>.</p>
<p>Most reporting about gendered violence in the search period occurred at the time of the 2011 Skype Affair. This included articles on resulting <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/national/defence-blitz-aims-to-lift-role-of-women-20110411-1db5p.html">ADF inquiries</a> and other incidents of <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-06-14/smith-flags-further-adf-assault-inquiries/2757752">sexual assault</a> that came to light during investigations. </p>
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<p>Over the 20 year period we studied, the prominence of the Skype Affair can be attributed to the gravity of the scandal and increased momentum for news stories due to media diversification.</p>
<h2>Focusing on the victim, not the perpetrator</h2>
<p>What we found most concerning in our study were the journalistic devices and strategies that covertly sexualise women. This means journalism that places women at the centre of crimes against them, denies them agency, and diminishes the role of perpetrators. </p>
<p>There are three examples here.</p>
<p>When the Skype Affair first appeared in newspaper stories, the media coined the female cadet “Kate”. This pseudonym, designed to protect her identity, had significant consequences. It put her at the centre of the crime.</p>
<p>We found 65% of articles that discussed the affair placed “Kate” or the “female cadet” first in relation to the sex act, as opposed to the young males who orchestrated the crime. </p>
<p>By contrast, the men involved were often absent from reporting. They were not given pseudonyms and their real names were used in less than 10% of articles. </p>
<p>In this way, their involvement was effectively neutralised. In some articles, the young male in the sex act is referred to as “another cadet” or as a “colleague”. For example, “Kate had sex with a fellow cadet”. </p>
<p>Kate is represented as active and central, while the perpetrator is represented as genderless and invisible. The language used sets up the woman as the victim and centralises her involvement in the assault.</p>
<h2>‘Troubled Lass’?</h2>
<p>“Kate” attracted significant sympathy for her assault. But she was also suggested to be the <a href="http://www.news.com.au/national/cadets-need-sex-as-outlet/news-story/d8f7c339159e7584a2dd582e57d716f2">source of the trouble she was in</a>. </p>
<p>Newspaper articles restated <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/we-could-do-without-defence-academy-20110411-1daxr.html">time and again</a> that “Kate” had committed the transgressions of fraternisation, drinking alcohol and being in a campus dormitory that was not her own. She was absent without leave (AWOL) as a result.</p>
<p>In these reports, Kate is framed as the problem, who was subsequently sent on <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/national/warning-over-sending-wrong-signal-to-cadets-20110412-1dcqb.html">“compassionate leave”</a>.</p>
<p>There were no articles in our sample that mentioned similar misdemeanours committed by the male cadets. Both parties in the consensual sex act fraternised and drank alcohol, yet the explicit focus on one party exists alongside the omission of the other. </p>
<p>The male cadets at the centre of the Skype Affair <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/national/sex-text-revealed-in-skype-case-20110429-1e0t1.html">sent text</a> and Facebook messages that unambiguously implicated them in the orchestration of a crime. Only two out of 118 articles reviewed in our sample cited these messages. </p>
<h2>Normalising men’s violence</h2>
<p>Violence against women is normalised by these writing devices, forming a smokescreen that hides the intricacies of institutional abuse. The framing of women as social problems, rather than agents who are subject to structural inequalities, disguises the reality of how power operates in society and in the military.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/military-women-need-to-trouble-gender-relations-and-roles-for-peaces-sake-63360">Military women need to trouble gender relations and roles for peace's sake</a>
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<p>Journalists need to be mindful of how power is reinforced through the telling and retelling of stories. This can be achieved by making the perpetrator active and central – engaged in the crime as opposed to passively constructed as not central to the event. </p>
<p>Given the power of the media in influencing and shaping public opinion, how gendered power and gender inequality are discussed in the media is critical to how women are perceived in society. How the media represent men’s sexual violence and women’s struggles to participate in a male-dominated institution enhances or inhibits the potential for real change.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/94499/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ben Wadham receives funding from the Australian Research Council</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Donna Bridges does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Media reporting on women in the military plays an important role in cultural change. Recent research shows Australian newspapers focus on scandal and place responsibility on the women involved.Donna Bridges, Lecture of sociology, Charles Sturt UniversityBen Wadham, Associate Professor, School of Education, Flinders UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/937392018-04-03T04:14:10Z2018-04-03T04:14:10ZDefamation in the digital age has morphed into litigation between private individuals<p>New South Wales District Court judge Judith Gibson <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/defamation-laws-social-media-rebel-wilson-nsw-20180321-p4z5e4.html">recently identified</a> a worrying social trend she sees in running the court’s defamation list – “ordinary people” suing over social media posts. In turn, NSW Attorney-General Mark Speakman <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/defamation-laws-social-media-rebel-wilson-nsw-20180321-p4z5e4.html">committed to a review</a> of defamation laws, in light of “the developing technological environment”. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.uts.edu.au/node/247996/news/trends-digital-defamation">Our new study</a> also observed the emergence of disputes between individuals over posts on various digital channels.</p>
<p>We looked at plaintiffs, defendants and platforms featured in 189 defamation cases over five years, from 2013 and 2017. We found disputes between individuals over posts on social media, in text messages and emails, and many matters involving comments on websites. </p>
<p>Using 2007 as a comparison to a largely “pre-social” period, we found the percentage of digital cases that year was just over 17% of all defamation cases, compared to just over 53% in 2017. </p>
<p>Interestingly, only 21% of cases over the five-year period involved private individuals as plaintiffs, and only 26% involved media companies as defendants (compared to 31% in 2007).</p>
<h2>Not just the domain of celebrities and politicians</h2>
<p>These findings run counter to perceptions of defamation cases largely consisting of proceedings brought by public figures against traditional media companies. Those matters still do occur – think <a href="https://theconversation.com/hockey-v-fairfax-should-start-the-debate-on-defamation-law-reform-44012">Joe Hockey</a> or <a href="https://theconversation.com/rebel-wilsons-4-5-million-win-a-sobering-reminder-that-defaming-a-celebrity-can-be-costly-83968">Rebel Wilson</a> – and they are sometimes the subject of large defamation awards. </p>
<p>However, it seems a large slab of defamation action in Australia is now disputes between individuals over comments posted on social media, websites, or other digital platforms.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/viewdoc/au/cases/act/ACTSC/2016/344.html?context=1;query=reid%20v%20dukic;mask_path=">One of the cases</a> we encountered involved Facebook posts about the CEO of a Canberra football team, made by someone in the football community. <a href="http://www.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/viewdoc/au/cases/qld/QDC/2015/133.html?context=1;query=bertwistle%20v%20conquest;mask_path=">Another case</a> was about text messages sent by a woman to her sister that accused the defendant of having consensual and non-consensual sex with his sisters. </p>
<p>In both cases, the people who published the messages did not appear at trial to defend themselves. Damages of more than A$100,000 were awarded, and both plaintiffs obtained injunctions to stop the defendant repeating the claims.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/viewdoc/au/cases/vic/VSC/2016/201.html?context=1;query=dods%20v%20mcdonald%20no%202;mask_path=">Another matter</a> involved website comments about a police officer involved in an incident where a 15-year-old boy was shot and killed in suburban Melbourne. The statements about the plaintiff were described by the judge as “shocking in the extreme”. </p>
<p>Although traffic to the website would be nothing like that of a news media site, the judge noted a search of the plaintiff’s name on a standard search engine would produce the defendant’s website prominently. </p>
<p>In this case, the defendant created a website dealing specifically with the topic that involved the plaintiff. It was significant that the defendant had both an opportunity and the means – the website – to issue a retraction or apology, but chose not to. This was despite the publication of a coronial inquiry that exonerated the police officer for personal liability. The plaintiff was awarded $150,000 in damages.</p>
<h2>A review overdue</h2>
<p>Claims made about plaintiffs can be very serious, despite most defendants not having the reach of the Herald Sun or The Sydney Morning Herald. </p>
<p>However, Gibson has questioned the merits of many of these cases – or, at least, the suitability of current defamation law as a way to resolve them. She <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/defamation-laws-social-media-rebel-wilson-nsw-20180321-p4z5e4.html">described our laws</a> as “out of sync” with technology.</p>
<p>The cases we looked at weren’t by any means the only defamation judgments over the period we examined. Indeed, we found more than 600 court decisions relating just to these 189 main cases. </p>
<p>The real scale of defamation action in Australia is unknown. Research efforts are complicated by fractured data sources, and public resources only reveal part of the picture. Confidential correspondence and settlements that try to offset costly court action – whatever the merits of those claims – is largely confined to in-house legal teams and their advisers.</p>
<p>All this helps underscore the importance of Gibson’s comments identifying the trends she sees in court, and the commitment from NSW to review defamation laws. </p>
<p>Previously, this decision to tackle a pressing problem in public policy would have pleased major media companies. Considering the findings of our study, it might also help a growing number of ordinary people who now find themselves caught up in complex legal actions.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/93739/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Derek Wilding is the Co-Director of the Centre for Media Transition at UTS. The centre&#39;s study, Trends in Digital Defamation, was partly funded by News Corp Australia. The Centre has also received funding from Facebook Australia for a study on journalism and trust. Derek Wilding receives research grant funding from the Australian Research Council for a Discovery Project on media pluralism, and from the Australian Communications Consumer Action Network for a project on responsive regulation in the communications sector. He is President of the Australian chapter of the International Institute of Communications. </span></em></p>A trend of defamation cases going digital has led to a review of defamation law in New South Wales.Derek Wilding, Co-Director, Centre for Media Transition, University of Technology SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/920442018-02-20T03:39:04Z2018-02-20T03:39:04ZA public broadcaster that bows to political pressure isn't doing its job<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/207016/original/file-20180219-116330-15nphvn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=496&amp;fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The ABC&#39;s independence is a global concern.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAP/Joel Carrett</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The ABC’s chief economics correspondent, Emma Alberici, did her job the other day. She wrote a well-researched <a href="https://johnmenadue.com/emma-alberici-theres-no-case-for-a-corporate-tax-cut-when-one-in-five-of-australias-top-companies-dont-pay-it/">analysis piece</a> investigating whether the Turnbull government’s proposed company tax cuts would grow the economy and break Australia’s wages deadlock. </p>
<p>Alberici’s article came in for a lot of criticism from the Turnbull government for its one-sidedness and lack of balance. Later, the ABC took down the article from its website.</p>
<p>If you read <a href="https://johnmenadue.com/emma-alberici-theres-no-case-for-a-corporate-tax-cut-when-one-in-five-of-australias-top-companies-dont-pay-it/">her piece</a>, you’ll see that, yes, she could have included more voices, and yes, the case for company tax cuts was forcefully argued against. But the argument and analysis was built on sound research, as Saul Eslake (one of Australia’s most senior and respected independent economists, who was quoted in Alberici’s story) <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/mediawatch/transcripts/s4805870.htm">has pointed out</a>.</p>
<p>So, why on earth did ABC take the article down? </p>
<p>Part of the answer to this lies in the very editorial policies that are supposed to safeguard the ABC’s independence. The current wording of these polices function as a straitjacket on ABC journalists and make it <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/mediawatch/transcripts/s4805870.htm">hard for them</a> to toe the line between analysis and opinion.</p>
<p>And that in turn makes the ABC look less independent.</p>
<h2>High level of trust</h2>
<p>One of the ABC’s greatest assets is the high <a href="https://mumbrella.com.au/trust-in-daily-and-local-newspapers-on-a-steady-decline-according-to-essential-research-432670">public trust</a> it enjoys compared to many of its commercial media competitors. </p>
<p>That trust is to a large extent built on the broadcaster maintaining and defending its independence from commercial, political and any other societal interests.</p>
<p>There are a lot of misconceptions regarding what a public broadcaster is. But one thing it is not is a government or state broadcaster. </p>
<p>There are certainly examples of some public broadcasters that are. One prominent recent case was when the Polish government in practice <a href="https://af.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idAFKCN0US2IC20160114">took control</a> of the country’s public broadcaster and turned it into a government mouthpiece.</p>
<h2>A serious case of self-doubt</h2>
<p>The ABC Act and the <a href="http://www6.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/viewdoc/au/legis/cth/consol_act/abca1983361/s6.html">ABC Charter</a> are the safeguards of ABC’s independence from the government of the day. This independence was challenged to unprecedented levels <a href="https://theconversation.com/crude-tone-of-attacks-is-new-but-softening-up-the-abc-for-cuts-isnt-25993">by the Abbott government</a> a few years ago.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/crude-tone-of-attacks-is-new-but-softening-up-the-abc-for-cuts-isnt-25993">Crude tone of attacks is new, but softening up the ABC for cuts isn't</a>
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<p>A new major challenge to the ABC’s independence is the <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/abc-sbs-funding-could-unlock-media-reform-say-greens-20170815-gxwgrq.html">current change</a>, driven by One Nation, to the ABC Charter requiring it to be “fair” and “balanced” in its reporting. If you recognise these terms, that’s because it used to be Fox News’ catchphrase.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-the-government-and-one-nation-may-use-media-reforms-to-clip-the-abcs-wings-84615">How the government and One Nation may use media reforms to clip the ABC's wings</a>
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</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>The ABC is not turning into the Polish Broadcasting Corporation, but it has clearly lost a lot of confidence lately. In Alberici’s case, it appears it <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/mediawatch/transcripts/s4805870.htm">bowed to government pressure</a> when it should have stood its ground. </p>
<p>But getting heat from the government of the day (regardless of the particular side of politics) is an indication that a public broadcaster is doing its most important job (provided you get your facts right): holding power to account. If you bow to political pressure, you’re not doing your job.</p>
<p>A public broadcaster with a confidence problem is a serious issue for political and democratic wellbeing.</p>
<p>Globally, there are between ten and 15 properly funded public broadcasters (depending on what level of funding you define as proper) with enough funding and safeguards to be able to call themselves editorially independent. This means there are only ten to 15 large repositories of in-depth public interest journalism – globally. </p>
<p>So, the case is strong for the Australian public to get behind the ABC and ask it to snap out of its crisis of confidence. Then it can get on with the job of keeping power to account – just like Alberici tried to do.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/92044/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Johan Lidberg does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>There are a lot of misconceptions regarding what a public broadcaster is. But one thing it is not is a government or state broadcaster.Johan Lidberg, Associate Professor, School of Media, Film and Journalism, Monash UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/919192018-02-16T03:09:39Z2018-02-16T03:09:39ZWelcome to the new (old) moralism: how the media's coverage of the Joyce affair harks back to the 1950s<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/206709/original/file-20180216-131021-qboshf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=496&amp;fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The Barnaby Joyce saga has been an example of &#39;shake-the-tree&#39; journalism at its worst.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAP/Lukas Coch</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The Barnaby Joyce saga has given a great boost to what might be called “shake-the-tree” journalism: you shake the tree by running a sensational story and see what falls out.</p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-02-07/mps-defend-joyces-right-to-privacy-after-partner-on-front-page/9403988">Daily Telegraph’s original public-interest case</a> for publishing the first story of Joyce’s relationship with ex-staffer Vikki Campion was weak when weighed against the privacy intrusions on Joyce, his estranged wife, his daughters, and Campion.</p>
<p>However, that story has resulted in the emergence of three genuine public-interest justifications.</p>
<p>The first is whether Joyce breached the <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/About_Parliament/Parliamentary_Departments/Parliamentary_Library/pubs/BN/2012-2013/Conduct">ministerial code of conduct</a> by employing his partner in his office. On this he has prevaricated, saying that his partner was not so employed. Here he was clearly referring to his wife, not Campion. In the circumstances, this was a distinction without a difference.</p>
<p>The second matter of public interest concerns the expenditure of <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/pm-s-office-says-vikki-campion-jobs-did-not-breach-rules-because-she-was-not-barnaby-joyce-s-partner-20180211-p4yzzp.html">public money on jobs</a> said to have been found for Campion when her presence in Joyce’s office became untenable. Her salary is reported to be about A$190,000.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/grattan-on-friday-turnbulls-excoriation-of-joyce-has-changed-the-game-but-how-91948">Grattan on Friday: Turnbull's excoriation of Joyce has changed the game, but how?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>The third is whether the Prime Minister’s Office was informed of this or whether Joyce misled them by omission.</p>
<p>Once the story came out in The Daily Telegraph, the media as a whole piled into a story they had all known about for months. And they have done so with a kind of shamefaced gusto, making up for lost time.</p>
<p>How much better it would have been if someone – anyone – in the Canberra gallery had succeeded in establishing at least one of those substantial public-interest justifications and broken the story framed around that.</p>
<p>Instead, the story that broke was coloured by the salacious moralism beloved of tabloid newspapers since time began.</p>
<p>It featured a large picture of Campion, heavily pregnant, a gross violation of privacy if ever there was one.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/206717/original/file-20180216-131003-4d7c7t.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/206717/original/file-20180216-131003-4d7c7t.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=600&amp;h=338&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/206717/original/file-20180216-131003-4d7c7t.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=30&amp;auto=format&amp;w=600&amp;h=338&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/206717/original/file-20180216-131003-4d7c7t.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=15&amp;auto=format&amp;w=600&amp;h=338&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/206717/original/file-20180216-131003-4d7c7t.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=425&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/206717/original/file-20180216-131003-4d7c7t.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=30&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=425&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/206717/original/file-20180216-131003-4d7c7t.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=15&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=425&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Telegraph breaks the story in a gross violation of privacy.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">www.dailytelegraph.com.au</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Here it was: the fruit of sin. The impregnated mistress, to borrow some of the vulgar moralising language that has disfigured the coverage.</p>
<p>The photo has been defended by The Daily Telegraph’s editor as proving the truth of the story that Barnaby Joyce had got his staffer pregnant. It proves nothing of the sort. It shows a woman pregnant. It says nothing about paternity.</p>
<p>Then on Valentine’s Day, The Daily Telegraph was at it again, this time with a page-one picture taken in 2016 in which Joyce and Campion are sitting next to each other at an official function.</p>
<p>Campion is in the foreground and Joyce, according to the caption, “eyes off” his media adviser. The headline says: “Bad look”.</p>
<p>There are many ways of interpreting this picture and headline. One of them is that Joyce had sexual designs on Campion back then, which from the caption is clearly the main message The Daily Telegraph wished to convey, regardless of truth or context.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/206716/original/file-20180216-131013-1xgvwkv.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/206716/original/file-20180216-131013-1xgvwkv.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=600&amp;h=380&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/206716/original/file-20180216-131013-1xgvwkv.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=30&amp;auto=format&amp;w=600&amp;h=380&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/206716/original/file-20180216-131013-1xgvwkv.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=15&amp;auto=format&amp;w=600&amp;h=380&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/206716/original/file-20180216-131013-1xgvwkv.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=478&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/206716/original/file-20180216-131013-1xgvwkv.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=30&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=478&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/206716/original/file-20180216-131013-1xgvwkv.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=15&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=478&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Daily Telegraph’s February 14 splash.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">www.womensagenda.com.au</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But the picture is also about Campion. Although she is oblivious of the glance from Joyce, the reader is given the opportunity to inspect her as the “other woman”: we get a good look at her face, her figure and her legs.</p>
<p>Put the “bad look” headline with that, and the reader is invited to draw negative conclusions about her appearance and her character.</p>
<p>This judgemental tone, redolent with sexual possibilities and consequences, is a throwback to the busybody moralising of the 1950s and 1960s.</p>
<p>Then – before the sexual revolution and the rise of second-wave feminism – it was a staple of middle-class morality to take a gossipy and often hurtful interest in marital breakdowns and pregnancies out of wedlock.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/grattan-on-friday-is-barnabys-baby-a-matter-of-public-interest-or-just-of-interest-to-the-public-91507">Grattan on Friday: Is Barnaby's baby a matter of 'public interest' or just of interest to the public?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>So why is this throwback happening?</p>
<p>Professor Alison Dagnes, a political scientist at Shippensburg University in Pennsylvania and editor of a textbook on <a href="https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/sex-scandals-in-american-politics-9781441186904/">sex scandals in American politics</a>, proposes a theory that goes like this: there is a well-documented loss of trust in institutions, one consequence of which is that the public is inclined to regard all politicians as scumbags.</p>
<p>Digital technology has equipped everyone with a camera and social media has provided everyone with the means of publishing. This has created a competitiveness of unprecedented intensity among media.</p>
<p>Scandals pique everyone’s interest, even among those who are not usually interested in politics. So any scandal that shows politicians to be the scumbags we suspect, guarantees lots of “likes” and “shares” on social media, generating a frenzy in traditional media and opening up the scandal to instant and reiterative public judgements.</p>
<p>This, in turn, adds to public distrust in institutions.</p>
<p>To this theory might be added two more possible factors.</p>
<p>The first is the shift in norms of privacy induced by social media and the ubiquity of mobile phones with cameras. Old understandings of the boundaries between private and public have been obliterated and new ones have not yet taken their place.</p>
<p>The second is people’s sense of entitlement to pass judgement on matters of which they have personal experience: intimate relationships, the primary school curriculum, the quality of driving on the roads. This is not new, but it is a powerful driver of attitudes.</p>
<p>Doubtless there are other factors, but whatever they are, Western society does appear to be in the grip of a new moralism, and the tabloid media are adept at making the most of it.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/91919/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Denis Muller does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Media reporting of the Barnaby Joyce affair would have been so much better if journalists had established substantial public-interest justifications before breaking the story.Denis Muller, Senior Research Fellow in the Centre for Advancing Journalism, University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/916472018-02-12T05:16:49Z2018-02-12T05:16:49ZBad politics shouldn't sink good ideas for public interest journalism<p>The Senate inquiry into the future of public interest journalism began as a gleam in the media-trained eye of Labor senator Sam Dastyari. It ended on February 5, 11 days after he left parliament, his political reputation in tatters over his conduct in relation to Chinese donors to the Labor Party.</p>
<p>This suggests the <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Senate/Future_of_Public_Interest_Journalism/PublicInterestJournalism/Report">inquiry’s recommendations</a> are unlikely to get much traction, but the very real issues it was investigating remain unresolved. How did quality media get into such a pickle and what can be done about it?</p>
<p>The three main developments that fed into the inquiry were: proposed changes to media ownership restrictions; the collapse of the business model that has for years sustained print media’s profitability; and the rise of “fake news” and its influence in the 2016 Brexit vote and the election of Donald Trump.</p>
<p>The government had made two previous attempts to change the media ownership laws created in a pre-internet age. But the effect of the changes, which were finally <a href="http://mitchfifield.com/Media/MediaReleases/tabid/70/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/1435/Joint-Prime-Minister--A-new-era-for-Australias-media.aspx">passed in 2017</a>, has largely been to protect existing mainstream media companies while failing to encourage new entrants into a <a href="http://pandora.nla.gov.au/pan/132662/20120321-1002/www.dbcde.gov.au/digital_economy/independent_media_inquiry.html">highly concentrated market</a>.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/DocumentStore.ashx?id=0e46bfc6-0436-44a3-9a79-1bb67785abdf&amp;subId=513238">according the journalists’ union</a>, the Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance, the collapse of the business model has prompted mainstream media companies to lay off around 25% of journalists between 2012 and 2017. </p>
<p>Media companies have cut costs but have been powerless to stem the flood of
advertising revenue to global behemoths Google and Facebook. Google’s market capitalisation is about half Australia’s gross domestic product, the Senate report notes.</p>
<p>The business model problem remains. As a result, the loss of journalistic talent and experience has led to significant gaps in reporting, especially in courts, state parliaments and local and regional reporting, according to the <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/DocumentStore.ashx?id=8f17f94c-e619-4154-bfad-a8e85e313ebd&amp;subId=511983">Civic Impact of Journalism research project</a>.</p>
<p>Lack of resources has also made news organisations increasingly vulnerable to “fake news”. Indeed, it was the growing alarm about “fake news”, coupled with yet another round of redundancies at Fairfax Media, that provided Dastyari with the public and political impetus to begin his inquiry.</p>
<p>In addition to Dastyari, the inquiry lost two of its most knowledgeable members – Greens senator Scott Ludlam, who resigned from parliament over his dual citizenship, and Nick Xenophon, who resigned to contest a seat in next month’s South Australian election.</p>
<p>The Coalition government was always unlikely to pay much heed to a Labor-chaired inquiry, but in its 149-page report the senators have grappled with important public policy issues. Their eight recommendations are:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Adequately fund public broadcasters, the ABC and SBS.</p></li>
<li><p>Guarantee future funding for community broadcasting.</p></li>
<li><p>Embed digital media literary in the Australian curriculum.</p></li>
<li><p>Extend deductible gift recipient status to not-for-profit news media organisations who engage in public interest journalism.</p></li>
<li><p>Ask Treasury to do modelling on extending tax deductibility to all
Australians who subscribe to news media outlets engaging in public interest
journalism.</p></li>
<li><p>Ask the Australian Law Reform Commission to conduct an audit of current laws that hinder journalists’ ability to report on national security and border protection issues.</p></li>
<li><p>Review defamation laws.</p></li>
<li><p>Expand legal protections for whistleblowers and other confidential sources for journalists.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>These ideas are all worthy of further debate. The final three recommendations all tackle crucial press freedom issues. The call for adequate funding for the ABC and SBS follows sharp cuts under the past two Coalition governments. The community broadcasting sector has also been treated with disdain. </p>
<p>Teaching children the value of public interest journalism, and how to distinguish it from what the public is interested in, would be a good first step to developing a generation of more savvy media consumers. </p>
<p>The middle two recommendations tackle the vital question of how to pay for quality journalism. One recommendation supports not-for-profit outlets while the other would potentially benefit media outlets that rely on subscriptions. The latest in a long line of industry hopes for finding a sustainable business model is to build subscription numbers.</p>
<p>The senators rejected submissions from numerous people and organisations recommending some form of direct subsidy from government, either for existing media companies or to encourage new entrants.</p>
<p>There are clearly issues here of potential government interference in editorial independence, but the senators overlooked three points. First, many other countries around the world already provide direct subsidies, as is detailed in chapter five of their report. Second, there is evidence that editorial independence can be safeguarded. Finally, there is a long history in Australia of directly subsidising the news media industry, as outlined in both this report and the <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/mediawatch/transcripts/1205_finkelstein.pdf">Finkelstein media inquiry</a> in 2012.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/DocumentStore.ashx?id=2d1a823f-fa69-47e5-a756-d236d3bb6dd4&amp;subId=511876">Public Interest Journalism Foundation has suggested</a> the government extend the model of the Australia Council and set up an independent body to fund journalism. This also seems a good idea.</p>
<p>Whatever happens to these recommendations, the clock is ticking. If public interest journalism continues to be starved of resources, journalists’ ability to unearth maladministration or corruption will be winnowed even further. Of course we won’t see it, because journalists won’t have been able to tell us.</p>
<p>As Bob Woodward of The Washington Post observed: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>The central dilemma in journalism is that you don’t know what you don’t know.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Imagine a world where we didn’t know about the Watergate scandal that Woodward was first to uncover.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/91647/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Matthew Ricketson receives funding from the Australian Research Council for being a chief investigator in the New Beats research project. He is affiliated with the Journalism Education and Research Association of Australia (JERAA) and the Public Interest Journalism Foundation (PIJF) and is employed by Deakin University; he was involved in drafting submissions from each of these organisations to the Senate Inquiry into the Future of Public Interest Journalism. He is the MEAA&#39;s representative on the Press Council. In 2011-12 he assisted Ray Finkelstein QC in the Independent Inquiry into the Media and Media Regulation. </span></em></p>The recommendations of the Senate inquiry into the future of public interest journalism are unlikely to get much traction, but the very real issues it was investigating remain unresolved.Matthew Ricketson, Professor of Communication, Deakin UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/883052017-12-10T19:12:37Z2017-12-10T19:12:37ZDespite the election hype, some of the media attention on One Nation was justified<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/197681/original/file-20171204-22967-1tzi67h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=496&amp;fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Pauline Hanson&#39;s One Nation will hold just one seat in the Queensland parliament following the state election. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAP/Dave Hunt</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Twice this year, Pauline Hanson’s One Nation Party has generated lots of media attention in state election campaigns only to finish up doing badly.</p>
<p>In March, the party garnered only 4.9% of the statewide vote and won no seats in the <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/elections/wa-election-2017/">Western Australian lower house</a> (it won three upper house seats). In November, it won 13.71% of the vote but <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/qld-election-2017/results/list/">only one seat</a> in Queensland’s unicameral parliament. In each case, One Nation contested not quite two-thirds of the lower house seats.</p>
<p>So, why does a party that seems so electorally marginal generate so much media attention?</p>
<h2>One Nation and news values</h2>
<p>An analysis of the coverage by Brisbane’s only daily newspaper, The Courier-Mail, of the Queensland campaign shows the seemingly disproportionate attention given to One Nation to be the result of a potent news-making brew: political vaudeville and genuine potential electoral clout, fortified by the attentions of a newspaper intoxicated by the anticipated possibilities.</p>
<p>The vaudeville was never edifying and mostly nasty.</p>
<p>There was Hanson’s <a href="https://www.9news.com.au/national/2017/09/18/17/19/pauline-hanson-blames-m1-freeway-congestion-on-immigrants">bizarre claim</a> that traffic congestion on the M1 motorway was somehow linked with the federal government’s immigration program. Too many migrants clogging up the roads, she argued.</p>
<p>There was One Nation’s <a href="http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/queensland-government/one-nation-unveils-controversial-domestic-violence-policy/news-story/d21c5bd31b9808eadba4996396b0b02a">policy on domestic violence</a>, which would have relaxed restrictions on access visits by fathers against whom the courts had issued protection orders.</p>
<p>There was Hanson <a href="http://www.news.com.au/national/queensland/politics/one-nations-sex-shop-trainwreck-interview-in-townsville/news-story/fb8d28142db225415f03035c61e4645e">defending a One Nation candidate</a> who owned a sex shop and who compared “good sex” with domestic violence.</p>
<p>There was One Nation’s Queensland leader, Steve Dickson, <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-11-11/annastacia-palaszczuk-rubbishes-one-nations-safe-schools-claim/9141520">asserting that</a>, as part of the Safe Schools program, primary school children were being taught how to masturbate and use dildos.</p>
<p>What is a newspaper supposed to do with this stuff? After all, these people are standing for public office and their outpourings deserve scrutiny and exposure.</p>
<p>The ethical response is to apply some kind of public-interest test. Giving free publicity to salacious or xenophobic rubbish is not defensible. On the other hand, a stated policy position that puts children at risk from violent fathers is a real news story. It richly deserved the extensive and condemnatory coverage the newspaper gave it.</p>
<p>One Nation’s potential political clout was likewise a genuinely big news story. It played into the pre-existing narrative about minor parties benefiting from voter disaffection with the major parties.</p>
<p>In what the polls were indicating was going to be a tight election, it also offered the prospect that One Nation might hold the balance of power. Drama, controversy, unpredictability: three strong news values at any time, and The Courier-Mail made the most of them.</p>
<h2>Was the attention so unwarranted?</h2>
<p>In September, two months before the election, it was framing routine news stories about the incumbent Labor government’s health and employment policies as being designed to lure disaffected voters who were said to be moving to One Nation.</p>
<p>It <a href="http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/state-election-2017/queensland-election-2017-one-nation-banks-on-usstyle-voter-backlash/news-story/0e430e8a3da309d0e7dcec90d6697cc7">was describing</a> One Nation as “resurgent”. Liberal National Party candidates whose seats were not being contested by One Nation <a href="http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/queensland-government/one-nation-will-not-run-a-candidate-against-cleveland-mp-mark-robinson/news-story/4dcff2d58aa0cc80f4cc76598a23cecf">were described</a> as having been “spared”. Dickson was <a href="http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/queensland-government/queensland-election-one-nation-aiming-for-balance-of-power/news-story/871038415eb6d8c65b6df2dc4463f62c">reported to be “adamant”</a> that One Nation would hold the balance of power. One Nation <a href="http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/queensland-government/queensland-election-one-nation-aiming-for-balance-of-power/news-story/871038415eb6d8c65b6df2dc4463f62c">was</a> “tipped to win a swag of seats outside Brisbane”.</p>
<p>There was some evidence for this. Polling <a href="http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/queensland-government/support-for-one-nation-has-leapt-from-16-per-cent-to-23-per-cent-in-past-three-months-poll-shows/news-story/e3d6786186f7316c6f1f9d92080bcab1">showed big swings to One Nation</a>. Bookmakers’ election charts showed One Nation gaining ground. </p>
<p>In The Courier-Mail’s news-speak, One Nation was <a href="http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/state-election-2017/queensland-election-2017-one-nation-supporter-snapshot/news-story/6699b25b38856fb0e861808fe24c8694">“poised to wreak havoc”</a>. Sounds good, doesn’t it: “tipped”, “poised to wreak havoc”.</p>
<p>But then came a sobering reality check: the <a href="http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/state-election-2017/queensland-election-2017-galaxy-poll-finds-one-nation-surge/news-story/6ae385083b84ec95a0f8016962ea761a">first poll of the campaign</a> showed One Nation’s share of the statewide primary vote as 18%. This was <a href="https://theconversation.com/queensland-galaxy-one-nation-surges-to-23-72840">down from 23%</a> in February.</p>
<p>Yet the <a href="http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/queensland-election-2017-labor-lnp-leaders-focus-on-one-nation-hot-seats-to-halt-regional-surge/news-story/cf712c19fd78b7071fa5c2583e7efb23">dramatic news-speak continued</a>. There was a “blitz” by the major parties on regional seats said to be “under siege” from One Nation. Hanson <a href="http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/state-election-2017/queensland-election-2017-galaxy-poll-finds-one-nation-surge/news-story/6ae385083b84ec95a0f8016962ea761a">was about to</a> “jet into the Queensland campaign tomorrow poised to handpick the state’s next premier”. There’s that word “poised” again.</p>
<p>As if to give substance to this premature excitement, readers were reminded that One Nation’s 18% of the vote was <a href="http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/state-election-2017/queensland-election-2017-one-nations-party-power-unsettling-for-voters/news-story/50c8afc2c5eed1a964d2653f4388a881">only 4.7 percentage points</a> short of the 22.7% it received in the 1998 election, when it won 11 seats in the Queensland parliament. Could history from nearly 20 years ago repeat itself?</p>
<p>Well, no. The poll showing One Nation with 18% of the primary vote also showed Labor on 35% and the LNP on 32%.</p>
<p>The language around One Nation’s chances was scaled back. By way of explanation, the newspaper reported that Queensland voters were concerned that One Nation might hold the balance of power, and believed this to be detrimental to the state.</p>
<p>It all seems such a beat-up in hindsight, and to some extent it looked like one at the time. But it was not entirely a beat-up. </p>
<p>One Nation did badly overall, but in the seats where all the media attention was focused, it really did mount a credible threat, as the following table shows. These seats were all mentioned in The Courier-Mail’s coverage as being at some degree of risk from One Nation – and, except for Mansfield, the figures bear that out.</p>
<p><iframe id="3QUkU" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/3QUkU/1/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/88305/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Denis Muller tidak bekerja, menjadi konsultan, memiliki saham, atau menerima dana dari perusahaan atau organisasi mana pun yang akan mengambil untung dari artikel ini, dan telah mengungkapkan bahwa ia tidak memiliki afiliasi selain yang telah disebut di atas.</span></em></p>The seemingly disproportionate media attention given to One Nation is the result of a potent news-making brew.Denis Muller, Senior Research Fellow in the Centre for Advancing Journalism, University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/843552017-11-07T19:26:33Z2017-11-07T19:26:33ZAustralians born overseas prefer the online world for their news<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/193368/original/file-20171106-1055-88d7en.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=496&amp;fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The increasing use of social media for news is alarming, because the information is not always reliable.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Australians from diverse cultural backgrounds are more likely to rely on social media and other internet sources, rather than traditional media, for their news and information. </p>
<p>Our research shows that Australians born overseas have a keen interest in local, national and international news, similar to those born in Australia. However, they turn to non-traditional media more often to consume news of interest. Our study sheds light on the differences between the news consumption habits of Australians born in Australia, and those born overseas but living in Australia.</p>
<p>In the study, we distributed an online survey to 216 Australians, with 68.5% identifying themselves as born in Australia. In the second phase, we distributed the same survey to 221 Australians from diverse cultural backgrounds, 73% of whom noted they were born overseas. The age distribution of participants in both surveys was similar, with a slightly higher proportion of younger people in both groups.</p>
<p>International research has established that news consumers in more developed nations have “distributed” <a href="https://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/our-research/digital-news-report-2016">sources of news</a> for a variety of reasons, including access to new media. Our study shows that Australians born overseas were more active online when consuming news than those born here, and as a result had further “enhanced distributed” sources of news than respondents in the first survey, who were predominantly born in Australia. </p>
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<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/shock-horror-the-big-end-of-town-has-finally-discovered-australias-media-is-a-whitewash-63809">Shock horror: the big end of town has finally discovered Australia's media is a whitewash</a>
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<p>Respondents in the second survey relied less on television (29% versus 42%) as their “main source of news”. Higher numbers of Australians born overseas considered social media networking sites (18% versus 12%) and radio (16% versus 8%) as their “main sources of news”.</p>
<p>Similarly, respondents born overseas visited an online news site more often (65% versus 48%); and searched through a news aggregator such as Google News more often (34% versus 23%). They also searched for a specific news topic via a search engine more often (72% versus 47%); and they were referred to a news story more often by a social media contact (53% versus 35%).</p>
<p>This is significant considering that the <a href="http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/Latestproducts/2024.0Main%20Features22016?opendocument&amp;tabname=Summary&amp;prodno=2024.0&amp;issue=2016&amp;num=&amp;view=">2016 census</a> showed that more than one in four of Australians was born overseas. </p>
<p>The census also pointed out that an increasing number of Australian citizens were born in Asian countries and other parts of the world, whereas in the past most migrants came from Europe. </p>
<p>The changing demography of Australia means that a typical migrant in Victoria was born in India, while a <a href="http://www.abs.gov.au/AUSSTATS/abs@.nsf/AUSSTATS/abs@.nsf/mediareleasesbyReleaseDate/5E54C95D3D5020C6CA2580FE0013A809?OpenDocument">typical</a> migrant in New South Wales was born in China. Considering this demographic shift, our research raises questions about the kinds of news stories covered by the mainstream media in Australia. </p>
<p>For example, our study shows that nearly twice as many respondents in the second survey (40% versus 21%) used social media to gain news about international events. Similarly, a significant number of Australians born overseas sought international news on Australian online sites (80%) compared with those in the first survey (50%).</p>
<h2>Why it matters</h2>
<p>The study has implications for traditional Australian news media (print, radio and television) in the digital era, where the industry’s outlook remains one of “<a href="https://www.ibisworld.com.au">struggle and constraint</a>” from declining revenue and competition from global online media and subscription video-on-demand services. </p>
<p>Our study shows that audiences are aware that news available on social networking sites can be of lower quality. However, Australians born overseas trust social media slightly more than those in the first survey, which predominately included Australians born in Australia. However, about a fifth (19%) of 437 participants did not trust any media source.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/advertising-is-driving-social-media-fuelled-fake-news-and-it-is-here-to-stay-68458">Advertising is driving social media-fuelled fake news and it is here to stay</a>
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</em>
</p>
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<p>The reliance on social media is alarming because news and information distributed via social networking sites may not be filtered by experienced and skilled journalists, potentially leading to the sharing and consumption of unverified information. </p>
<p>Meanwhile, <a href="http://ijoc.org/index.php/ijoc/article/viewFile/2691/1325">research</a> has shown that skewed coverage of transnational news events and issues creates stereotypes and causes anxiety amongst communities. The distributed sources of news isolates various sections of the Australian community into silos. </p>
<p>This in turn results in fragmentation of news audiences and decentralisation of news production by a variety of producers, both of which have an impact on a community’s common understanding of shared events. </p>
<p>We argue that by catering to the needs of the increasingly multicultural audiences in Australia and providing more depth to their coverage of transnational news, events and issues, the mainstream media may be able to increase their relevance as a source of news to a broader range of Australians.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/84355/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>For this project, we received funding and in-kind support from the Victorian government&#39;s Social Cohesion Research grant scheme, SBS, and ECCV.
</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>For this project, we received funding and in-kind support from the Victorian government&#39;s Social Cohesion Research grant scheme, SBS, and ECCV.</span></em></p>New research shows that Australians from diverse backgrounds are turning away from traditional media and heading online, a trend that has great significance for media companies.Usha M. Rodrigues, Senior Lecturer in Journalism, Deakin UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/847662017-10-03T01:05:11Z2017-10-03T01:05:11ZStraight from the athlete's mouth: Australia's sports media landscape could be set for a shake-up<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/188289/original/file-20171002-28503-1985pfj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=496&amp;fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Nick Kyrgios has written of his on-court struggles for athletes&#39; website PlayersVoice.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">EPA/Jose Mendez</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>In recent weeks, AFL star Gary Ablett’s <a href="http://www.exclusiveinsight.com/why-i-created-exclusiveinsight-com-for-athletes-fans/">Exclusive Insight</a> and <a href="https://www.playersvoice.com.au">PlayersVoice</a> have joined <a href="http://www.thesportssource.com.au/">The Sports Source</a>, <a href="https://20four.com.au">20FOUR</a> and <a href="http://unscriptd.com">Unscriptd</a> as online sports media products aimed at connecting athletes directly to fans. But will they provide a point of difference enough to transform Australia’s sports media landscape?</p>
<h2>‘No filter’</h2>
<p>PlayersVoice has delivered stories – like footballer Alex Fasolo <a href="https://www.playersvoice.com.au/alex-fasolo-death-was-an-escape-fantasy/">on</a> his depression, tennis player Nick Kyrgios <a href="https://www.playersvoice.com.au/nick-kyrgios-the-battle-raging-inside-me/#8A14ByhEQsqgJOb2.97">on</a> his seesawing form, AFLW star Erin Phillips’ <a href="https://www.playersvoice.com.au/erin-phillips-a-prime-minister-afraid-to-lead/#qXkpdirtgyG7DW3M.97">statement on marriage equality</a>, and Pek Cowan’s <a href="https://www.playersvoice.com.au/pek-cowan-stress-tears-and-a-club-ruined/">emotional description</a> of the Western Force’s axing from Super Rugby – that have all been strong enough to be covered by other media outlets. </p>
<p>Along with a star-studded contributors list, its structure most closely resembles the most successful of these products: the US-based Players’ Tribune. Launched in 2014 by baseballer Derek Jeter, it has played host to both high-profile news stories such as basketballer Kevin Durant’s decision to join the Golden State Warriors, and more personal ones such as hockey player Patrick O’Sullivan’s <a href="https://www.theplayerstribune.com/patrick-osullivan-nhl-abuse/">devastating description</a> of his father’s abuse. </p>
<p>Players’ Tribune <a href="http://fortune.com/2017/01/19/derek-jeter-players-tribune-funding/">recently raised US$40 million</a>, has monthly page views of 100 million, and its readers stay on pages for an average of five minutes. The last of these is a significant figure in an era where readers’ attention spans are often compared to that of goldfish.</p>
<p>The launch messages for both Exclusive Insight and PlayersVoice were similar to that of Players’ Tribune: that athletes no longer trust the media, and their sites offer a space for athletes to tell stories with no filter. PlayersVoice CEO Kerry McCabe <a href="http://www.mediaweek.com.au/playersvoice-ceo-kerry-mccabe/">said</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>In Australia we have gone too far with the negative focus as a result of some of the systemic pressures on traditional media. As someone who has worked in digital publishing and social media, [I think] we have moved away from great sports storytelling, which used to be available in the media.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>But what PlayersVoice and its competitors are selling isn’t great journalism; while they may have hired journalists to help athletes craft their stories, so far the writing is not exactly literary prose.</p>
<p>Instead, what these sites are selling is access. And when it comes to access, their biggest competition is not mainstream media outlets – because they have already lost much of it.</p>
<h2>The sport and media relationship</h2>
<p>The sport and media have shared a symbiotic relationship for more than a century. </p>
<p>In an overhaul of the struggling New York World in 1883, Joseph Pulizter introduced the first newspaper sports department – directly because of its potential to attract readers.</p>
<p>It wasn’t the only change, but it was an important one. By 1898, the paper’s circulation had <a href="http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/press_box/2005/09/the_lost_world_of_joseph_pulitzer.html">increased from 15,000 to 1.5 million</a>.</p>
<p>Since then, media have relied on sport to sell copies and attract viewers. Rupert Murdoch famously said sport was a good <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/football/1999/feb/28/newsstory.sport2">“battering ram”</a> to get into new markets.</p>
<p>Sport has similarly relied on media to deliver it revenue, primarily through broadcast rights, and more generally to communicate its messages. As a result, sporting organisations have hired media relations staff to help connect media and athletes.</p>
<h2>Media managers as gatekeepers</h2>
<p>The media manager’s role is needed to help facilitate the number of journalists covering sport. The AFL accredited <a href="http://s.afl.com.au/staticfile/AFL%20Tenant/AFL/Files/AFL%20Annual%20Report%202012_web.pdf">more than 2,000 media personnel in 2011</a>, which way outstrips the <a href="http://pressgallery.net.au/about-us/">300 in the federal press gallery</a>. </p>
<p>But recently, media managers – whose initial role was simply to facilitate access to talent when journalists asked for it – strategically look at each request. One AFL club staffer <a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1012690216637631">told me</a> they weighed up each request based on what they could achieve:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>It’s not negotiation but you are almost pitching back to journalists … journalists will request and you will say, ‘yes, but how about this player instead?’. Because we know that will allow us to achieve our own ends, while facilitating their need for content.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Limits on access have been further driven by sporting organisations that no longer need the media to deliver their messages. Instead, athletes and organisations can speak directly to audiences through their own platforms.</p>
<p>All sport organisations now have websites and multiple social media platforms to fill. This has led to staff employed in content production roles. </p>
<p>While Collingwood in 2014 was the first Australian club to build a <a href="http://www.afr.com/business/media-and-marketing/collingwood-aflclub-builds-build-tv-studio-for-digital-marketing-expansion-20140107-jydqz">full TV studio</a>, most professional sports clubs in Australia now have broadcast-quality production in-house. </p>
<p>These sites aren’t just a way for clubs to build digital audiences they can sell to sponsors: they are also a way for the clubs and athletes to explicitly control their brand.</p>
<p>As another AFL club staffer <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/21670811.2016.1239546">said</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The global trend is to seize control of the news because news has economic value. By eliminating the middleman, the megaphone that is the press, we are able to tell the story in the way that we want without any filter or interpretation.</p>
</blockquote>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/188291/original/file-20171002-28516-1cbgntf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/188291/original/file-20171002-28516-1cbgntf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=600&amp;h=400&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/188291/original/file-20171002-28516-1cbgntf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=30&amp;auto=format&amp;w=600&amp;h=400&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/188291/original/file-20171002-28516-1cbgntf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=15&amp;auto=format&amp;w=600&amp;h=400&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/188291/original/file-20171002-28516-1cbgntf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=503&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/188291/original/file-20171002-28516-1cbgntf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=30&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=503&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/188291/original/file-20171002-28516-1cbgntf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=15&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=503&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The number of media accredited to cover the AFL is in the thousands.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAP/Tracey Nearmy</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Challenges for athlete-to-fan products</h2>
<p>This leaves the new wave of athlete-to-fan digital products with a few challenges. Chief among these is getting attention in a crowded media marketplace. While legacy media might be floundering, it still has a significant audience share. </p>
<p>The second challenge is revenue. PlayersVoice is presumably paying its contributors and staff, but proudly proclaims it won’t have banner ads or associations with gambling advertisers.</p>
<p>Another challenge is that it might be difficult to continue to create a stream of relevant and interesting content once the platforms’ novelty wears off. In a world where athletes have many competing priorities, will creating content for these sites remain one?</p>
<p>Ultimately, these platforms’ success may come down to the digital priorities of the athletes’ primary employers. Clubs or professional leagues may decide that their existing platforms should be a priority over third-party sites. </p>
<p>With increasing club investment in both player payments and digital resources, it remains to be seen whether they will be happy to hand over too much of their audience to sites where they might not be able control the whole message.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/84766/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Merryn Sherwood receives funding from the Australian Research Council.</span></em></p>The new wave of athlete-to-fan digital products will be faced with a few challenges if they are to be successful.Merryn Sherwood, Lecturer in Sports Journalism, La Trobe UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/810882017-09-03T20:06:31Z2017-09-03T20:06:31ZIt's reputation that matters when spin doctors go back to the newsroom<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/180288/original/file-20170731-22047-wwgjzr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=496&amp;fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">ABC Insiders host Barrie Cassidy was once press secretary to former prime minister Bob Hawke.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://tv.press.abc.net.au/nick-xenophon-speaks-with-barrie-cassidy-on-insiders-sunday-morning">ABC</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>When a journalist moves from press secretary to press gallery reporter, it raises tricky ethical questions for news editors in the face of possible concerns about the former political staff member’s <a href="https://www.academia.edu/34114308/From_press_secretary_to_political_reporter_editors_and_politicians_perceptions_of_partisanship_and_professionalism">independence and partisanship</a>.</p>
<p>For some editors, the risk of the returning journalist being perceived as politically biased would be too great, and they wouldn’t be employed. For others, the benefit of fresh inside knowledge and connections outweighs the risk.</p>
<p>I interviewed ten Australian news editors and nine politicians in 2015-16 about managing the shift from press secretary to political reporter. The responses boiled down to questions of professionalism and reputation.</p>
<p>Editors made a distinction between press secretaries they perceived to be actively engaged party members – or “spear chuckers” as the former editor-in-chief of The Australian, <a href="https://theconversation.com/chris-mitchell-writes-a-love-letter-to-himself-65231">Chris Mitchell</a>, described them – and those who were more detached communications professionals. </p>
<p>The Australian Financial Review’s editor-in-chief, Michael Stutchbury, described the difference as being between “warriors” who “treat it a bit like political warfare” and “others who go in there and do a professional job”.</p>
<h2>Choices to make on disclosure</h2>
<p>Depending on how much Kool-Aid the press secretary was perceived to have consumed, they would either be put back in the newsroom or be employed as a commentator. </p>
<p>Because commentary positions are not bound by the journalistic norms of objectivity and impartiality, having a strong partisan perspective was seen as an advantage. Chris Kenny, who is upfront about his former affiliations, is an example of someone who was a journalist prior to working as an adviser and running for the Liberal Party, and who is now a columnist and political commentator. </p>
<p>Those who returned to <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/mediareport/going-to-the-dark-side-and-back/5957426">political reporting</a> were likely to take one of two routes. </p>
<ul>
<li><p>The first was straight back to reporting without a cooling off period. </p></li>
<li><p>The second is variously described as “laundering”, “cleansing”, “purging” and “weaning”, in which the former staffer is employed in a non-political reporting role for a period to reduce conflicts of interest and perceptions of bias. </p></li>
</ul>
<p>This “laundering” method was the preferred approach of eight of the ten editors. It was not seen as mandatory, but the majority said some form of temporary buffer between the two roles might be useful. Ultimately they all felt it should be determined on a case-by-case basis.</p>
<p>Once back in the newsroom, issues emerged about whether to reveal the reporter’s <a href="https://www.academia.edu/31700834/The_disclosure_disconnect_ideals_of_transparency_and_editorial_reality_AJR_38_2_129-140">previous political employment</a>. Despite journalism being in the disclosure business, the editors were divided over whether the journalist should include their time as a press secretary on their CV or at the bottom of their stories. </p>
<p>Some, such as Channel Seven’s former network news director, Rob Raschke, thought openness was the best policy:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Let the audience make their mind up on that. Don’t make it up for them; declare it and they’ll make their mind up. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Others considered a declaration to be unnecessary because a quick internet search would reveal all. There were also questions about how much information should be disclosed and for how long. As one editor put it:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Look, I mean, it’s almost like a criminal record. Do you drag that around with you for ten years? You don’t get 15 years for murder!</p>
</blockquote>
<p>There was also debate about how and where to make this type of disclosure: on the journalist’s CV, in a central database or at the end of a story? Sky News political editor David Speers agreed that “disclosure is important”, but there were issues in the medium of television.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>On-air disclosures are tricky. I mean, if someone appears on air every hour, you can’t exactly finish every appearance with: ‘By the way, I used to work for …’. But somehow you do need to disclose these things.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Judging on work performance</h2>
<p>While there was disagreement about how to implement the methods of disclosure, the editors all shared the view that ultimately a reporter should be judged on their professionalism and not their CV. </p>
<p>“We want to judge them on the fairness, the balance, impartiality that they bring to the craft … by the work that they do, not who they once worked for,” said the former ABC managing director, Mark Scott.</p>
<p>The emphasis on professionalism and reputation was echoed by politicians when it came to hiring a journalist as a press secretary. All nine interviewed said they gave preference to strong media and communication skills and professional reputation as a reporter over party membership. </p>
<p>Former prime minister Kevin Rudd said the critical question was to “have a person who is professionally respected by the media”. And former federal Labor minister Gary Gray explained that Canberra is a small place:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I mean, everybody knows everybody else certainly in the federal press gallery … and I think people have a very clear idea how professional they have been in either their previous roles as a journalist or as a media adviser. You make your decision based on that.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Some politicians said they had employed press secretaries from other parties because it was important not to be surrounded by “yes” men. Others felt that, at the very least, the press secretary needed to share the party’s world view.</p>
<p>Whether they did or not, there was a perception among the Labor politicians that once the press secretary returned to political reporting there was a tendency to “overcompensate the other way”. Former South Australian premier Mike Rann said this happened to “demonstrate to their editors and chiefs of staff that they’re not Labor”.</p>
<p>Despite this risk and difficulties in managing the career shift, each of the politicians and editors felt time as a press secretary for a political reporter was really valuable. It gave the reporter greater understanding of the political process, which was welcomed by editors and politicians.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/81088/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Caroline Fisher received funding for the research discussed in this article from the Journalism Education and Research Association of Australia. </span></em></p>Australian news editors and politicians give their views on the ethical issues arising when reporters return to journalism after time as a political spin doctor.Caroline Fisher, Assistant Professor in Journalism, University of CanberraLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/825062017-08-17T20:20:54Z2017-08-17T20:20:54ZFinding balance on marriage equality debate a particular challenge for the media<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/182363/original/file-20170817-16211-tq67ce.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=496&amp;fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Cory Bernardi&#39;s views on same-sex marriage may be crude and ignorant, but the media are nonetheless obligated to report how he uses his power.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAP/Lukas Coch</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Covering the same-sex marriage debate presents the media with an acute ethical dilemma: how to give effect to people’s right of free speech while taking into account truth-telling, offensiveness, and the risk of doing harm.</p>
<p>While this is a balance that conscientious journalists always have to strike, it is obvious from the nature of the debate so far that the same-sex marriage issue is capable of generating unusually pernicious and potentially harmful material. This marks it out as a case requiring especial vigilance.</p>
<p>The starting point is to separate the two basic questions that arise from the government’s decision to hold a <a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-with-no-free-vote-for-now-where-next-for-marriage-equality-82156">voluntary postal plebiscite</a>.</p>
<p>One of these is a question of opinion: should same-sex marriage be supported or opposed? It is in relation to this that the ethical dilemmas arise.</p>
<p>The other is a question of fact: is the voluntary postal plebiscite methodologically defensible as a way to <a href="https://theconversation.com/using-the-abs-to-conduct-a-same-sex-marriage-poll-is-legally-shaky-and-lacks-legitimacy-82245">obtain the opinion</a> of the voting public?</p>
<p>This can be disposed of swiftly. The fact is that while the plebiscite might be politically useful, it is scientifically worthless. It is what researchers call a SLOP – a <a href="http://methods.sagepub.com/reference/encyclopedia-of-survey-research-methods/n524.xml">self-selecting opinion poll</a>.</p>
<p>It is no better than a dial-in survey about some piece of football trivia – should Toby Greene be suspended for kicking an opponent’s face – dial X for yes and Y for no.</p>
<p>There’s only one kind of poll that’s worse – <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/19/upshot/push-polls-defined.html?mcubz=3">push polling</a>. This happens where the question is asked in such a way as to push the respondent toward a particular answer.</p>
<p>The one thing we will be able to say at the end of the plebiscite is that it shows the opinions of those who chose to take part. It will tell us nothing statistically valid about the opinions of the voting population as a whole.</p>
<p>Scientifically speaking, the government would be better off asking a reputable polling outfit such as Newspoll to do a stratified random survey of 2,000 voters for about A$122,000, rather than the $122 million the postal vote is going to cost.</p>
<p>However, the ethical issues are complex and not so easily disposed of.</p>
<p>First, the issue of harm minimisation. We know from people like former High Court justice Michael Kirby, who is homosexual, and from <a href="https://www.beyondblue.org.au/docs/default-source/default-document-library/bw0258-lgbti-mental-health-and-suicide-2013-2nd-edition.pdf?sfvrsn=2">a lot of research</a>, just how vulnerable adolescent boys and girls are when they discover they are attracted to people of the same sex.</p>
<p>A <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1007/BF00942151/full">research article</a> published in the American Journal of Community Psychology as far back as 1993 found that first awareness of sexual orientation typically occurred at the age of ten. Yet typically, the young person didn’t tell anyone until they were about 16. That’s six years of private struggle. Suicide attempts were acknowledged by 42% of the sample.</p>
<p>Broadly speaking, these vulnerabilities are a matter of common knowledge. It follows that there is a risk of foreseeable and avoidable harm associated with public debate on this topic.</p>
<p>This imposes on journalists an ethical obligation to identify foreseeable risks of harm arising from this debate and, where possible, avoid them.</p>
<p>Avoidance is not always possible. If someone like senator Cory Bernardi <a href="https://theconversation.com/bernardi-slips-down-the-political-slope-with-bestial-comments-on-marriage-9685">likens homosexuality to bestiality</a>, journalists have no choice but to publish it, because although what he says is crude and ignorant, he is a public figure and needs to be held to account for how he uses his power.</p>
<p>Minimising harm dictates that harmful statements like this be repudiated by a voice of at least equal authority.</p>
<p>But if something similar just goes viral on social media and comes from no public or authoritative source, are journalists justified in ventilating it further?</p>
<p>Often it will come down to a choice between exploiting some sensationalist remark or exercising responsible restraint.</p>
<p>Similarly, statements such as that by the Australian Christian Lobby saying children of gay couples <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/senator-wong-condemns-christian-lobbys-stolen-generations-comment-20130521-2jyn3.html">were a stolen generation</a> need to be published because they come from a major participant in the debate.</p>
<p>But when people base their arguments on false facts, journalists have a duty to put the true facts into the story. For example, some people say that the children of homosexual couples have poorer life outcomes than children of heterosexual couples. That simply isn’t true.</p>
<p>A <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1741-3737.2009.00678.x/abstract">meta-analysis</a> of 33 studies worldwide, including a study by Jennifer Power of La Trobe University, found that while there are methodological limitations to all studies in this area, it seems clear that children raised by homosexual couples do <a href="https://theconversation.com/same-sex-couples-and-their-children-what-does-the-evidence-tell-us-55565">at least as well</a> as children raised by heterosexual couples.</p>
<p>How journalists report and comment on the debate will affect its quality. That applies whether they work in commercial media or public-sector broadcasting.</p>
<p>The Guardian Australia <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2017/aug/12/we-wont-be-giving-equal-time-to-spurious-arguments-against-marriage-equality">has already declared</a> that it will simply not publish what it regards as spurious arguments against same-sex marriage.</p>
<p>The ABC does not have this luxury. It is obliged to give both sides a fair go, but that doesn’t mean the ABC is obliged to republish known untruths or offensive or harmful material.</p>
<p>Its editorial policies require its journalists to be impartial. The elements of impartiality include factual accuracy, fairness and balance. Balance requires that the main voices in a debate be heard, but it also requires that journalists follow the weight of evidence.</p>
<p>For instance, in the vaccination debate, the weight of evidence is clearly on the side of the science that says vaccination is safe. To <a href="http://www.skynews.com.au/news/politics/federal/2017/08/16/one-nation-says-abc-should-air-anti-vaxxers.html">give equal weight</a> to the anti-vax movement is false balance.</p>
<p>It follows that ABC journalists and ethical journalists everywhere have plenty of scope to decide whether and how to publish material that carries a risk of doing harm, or that is offensive or misleading, while at the same time giving effect to people’s right to free speech.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/82506/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Denis Muller does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>In the marriage equality debate as in any other, media outlets must balance the right to freedom of speech with the balance of evidence.Denis Muller, Senior Research Fellow in the Centre for Advancing Journalism, University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.